Embracing Generative AI’s Potential While Urging for Responsible Innovation

Working at Springbok Agency with great minds like Christophe Mes , Clair Verstraeten , Jeroen van Norren and Alexander Cha'ban , my days are filled with excitement and discovery in the continuously developing fields of predictive and generative AI. Jeroen and Alexander dove last weeks into testing several LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) models for some specific clients.

Imagine you have a large photo album with pictures of yourself, but they’re all in the same background and outfit. If you wanted to see yourself in different places like a Tuscany beach, the mountains Switzerland, or even in a trip to outer space with Space X, LoRA enables us make those changes to just a few parts of each photo without changing the entire model of “you”. Instead of rebuilding the whole picture from scratch every time, LoRA helps us quickly add new details and backgrounds to create these different settings.

This clever technique allows us to put the same person or object in many new, unique contexts quickly and without heavy resources. It’s a game changer for creating custom, realistic images for our clients, and it opens up a world of creative possibilities, making AI even more powerful and efficient.

As a technology director, enthusiast, and early adopter, I’m usually the first to dive into new innovations, often setting aside concerns to focus on the thrill of what’s possible. Generative AI has opened up a new world of creativity I didn’t even realize I had. It’s brought me closer to the creative experts at the office than ever before. Learning me to see possibilities I’d never imagined, but still as a technologist😊. But creating a model of myself and instantly placing it in any scene, from sumo wrestlers to surreal royal portraits or embodying familiar pop culture icons or making me do extreme sports has endless opportunities and is ofcourse a lot of fun to play with. These images are extremely close to reality if you are able to engineer the right prompts, showing just how far we’ve come with support of technology. But for the first time in this gen AI storm, I find myself questioning the boundaries of innovation, especially the ethical ones when using these generative AI tools.

While experimenting with this tech for our clients is exciting, it also brings a strange sense of discomfort. For example, I created an image of myself, and the moment I saw it, a wave of uncomfortness hit. I wanted to delete it instantly, almost afraid it might somehow take on a life of its own, even though I knew for sure it was purely fictional. The feeling of being “caught” in something untrue, a sense of shame and unfairness, made me feel incredibly small. I deleted it quickly, but I’m still left wondering what it did with me, if that image is stored somewhere beyond my control maybe. This lack of control is what makes the risks feel so real.

What triggered this even more was when my colleague Jeroen told me he had generated dozens of pictures of himself playing and cuddling with a huge polar bear. His kids were completely flabbergasted, they couldn’t process that it wasn’t real. They kept asking where the bear was, how it hadn’t hurt him, and whether he’d somehow become the next big Freek Vonk, a “bear whisperer.” They were positive it was real, fully convinced that their dad had made friends with a giant bear.

These tools in the wrong hands can easily lead to misuse to create deepfakes that place people in misleading or compromising situations. I just need ten pictures of a person or object which I can find on social media and done. And suddenly, you or your business could be left defending yourself against things that never happened, with reputational damage that’s hard to undo in today’s cancel-culture we live in. This isn’t just a theoretical risk, we’re already seeing misuse around us everywhere. From fake insurance claims and stock manipulation to phony product scandals, impersonification, misleading reviews, and fabricated legal evidence, generative AI misuse threatens businesses and people on multiple fronts, underscoring the need for proactive governance. And that’s led me to realize: we can’t afford to let this technology remain ungoverned. Generative AI, if misused, will blur the line between reality and fiction so thoroughly that nothing can be taken lightly in my opinion, for sure not now we all have such easy access for just a few dollars and easy interfaces, it is out in the open.

As this technology advances at lighting speed, we need regulatory measures to keep up. Solutions like watermarking, mandatory labeling of AI-generated images, laws, education and exposing embedded metadata are crucial steps to maintain transparency and accountability. Imagine a future where every generated image is automatically marked, allowing everyone to easily distinguish between what’s real and what’s synthetic. These safeguards aren’t about slowing innovation; they’re about ensuring responsible use and awareness. Generative AI has a huge potential not just for the creative industry, but also in fields like marketing, education, healthcare, entertainment and beyond. Used properly, it can be transformative. But we need rules for this game to balance innovation with safeguards. Governments, tech companies, and regulatory bodies must act quicker to establish ethical standards that allow us to harness AI’s benefits while minimizing risks.

In the meantime, our critical mindset is a most essential asset for now.  Where photos and videos were once the ultimate proof of truth, we’re now in a world where the mantra might need to be “Nothing is real unless proven”. It’s a complete paradigm shift, a world turned upside down, where technology redefines reality. That is what transformative means in this context to me. How do we navigate this new terrain? Can we find a way to embrace innovation while ensuring authenticity and security? As someone who believes deeply in the positive potential of technology, I really hope we can crack this nut.

For my kids, Gen Z and Alpha, who are growing up in a digital world, the lines between realilty and virtual are already blurring. They are not even worried about it. They place less importance on whether something is “real” in the physical sense or not. Where I once wanted the only real Nike Dunk kicks, today’s kids are just as excited about owning digital Nike RTFKT assets to show off in games like Fortnite or Roblox. This shift reflects the convergence of tech I discussed in an earlier article, where digital and physical realities are blending more than ever. As these generations grow, they’ll increasingly inhabit this hybrid world and it’s up to us to guide it responsibly, balancing the thrill of innovation with a grounding in authenticity.

Do we press forward without constraints, or do you agree it’s time to embrace a more structured approach to keep pace with AI’s incredible speed? Balancing the possibilities of generative AI with a commitment to authenticity and security is essential for ensuring society can confidently integrate and rely on this transformative technology.

What’s your take?