Exploring the Digital Undertow: How generative AI impacts social categorizations in creative work

This paper examines generative AI’s broader implications for the social construction of categories. Building on the Orlikowski and Scott’s concept of the ‘digital undertow’, we consider how generative AI’s influence will likely extend beyond immediate technological benefits and lead to deeper shifts in the societal structures and occupational identities constituting conventional categories. We extrapolate from emerging findings that suggest that, while generative AI improves efficiency and the average quality of a creative product, it also tends to reduce the advantages of expertise and induce a homogenization of what is creatively produced as outputs. We consider how such dynamics might play out in the specific case of the changing roles of screenwriters and studio executives within the television and film industries. With this focused thought experiment, our overall aim is to draw attention to the broader implications of change brought forth by this technological innovation.