Empowering Creatives with Generative AI
Guest: Charles Migos, Veteran Toolmaker and AI Innovator for Creative Industries
Host: Seth Earley, CEO at Earley Information Science
Published on: July 7, 2025
In this episode of the Earley AI Podcast, host Seth Earley sits down with Charles Migos, a veteran toolmaker whose career has spanned animation, post-production, visual effects, and large-scale media systems. Charles is recognized for his innovative approach to making emerging technologies—particularly generative AI—intuitive and accessible for creatives at every level, not just technical experts. Drawing on decades of experience, Charles shares what it means to design tools that empower storytellers and production teams, accelerate creativity, and address industry-specific needs.
Key Takeaways:
- The media and entertainment industry has been under stress due to macroeconomic changes and the disruptive impact of generative AI.
- Creative jobs and processes are being transformed as AI tools dramatically speed up and democratize production workflows, bridging the gap between concept and execution.
- Traditional creative roles are shifting: Directors, producers, and even clients can now participate directly in visual storytelling without years of technical training.
- Instead of relying solely on prompt-based AI systems, innovation lies in giving creatives precise, fine-grained control for rapid exploration and content iteration.
- Asset repurposability, modularity, and the ability to build on prior creative work are becoming crucial for agencies and studios to scale, reduce costs, and increase creative output.
- Protecting intellectual property and ensuring ethical AI use—particularly around deepfakes and content control—is fundamental as generative tools become more powerful.
- The foundation of successful creative AI lies in deeply understanding and honoring existing workflows, enabling faster collaboration, clearer communication, and greater creative trust.
Insightful Quotes:
"Your ability to create faster and better than you ever have before, your ability to collaborate with your team and your stakeholders in ways you never have before, and the ability to communicate around what you create as that team effort is what matters most." - Charles Migos
"The best AI tools are the ones that disappear into the creative process, that feel natural and intuitive rather than requiring you to learn a whole new way of working." - Charles Migos
"Generative AI is democratizing creativity, but we need to make sure we're empowering creatives, not replacing them. It's about augmentation, not automation." - Charles Migos
Tune in to explore how AI is reshaping the creative landscape and to gain actionable insight on building truly human-centered design into emerging tech.
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmigos/
Website: https://www.intangible.ai
Ways to Tune In:
Earley AI Podcast: https://www.earley.com/earley-ai-podcast-home
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1586654770
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Podcast Transcript: AI Tools for Creative Industries and Human-Centered Design
Transcript introduction
This transcript captures a conversation between Seth Earley and Charles Migos on the impact of generative AI on creative industries. Topics include the transformation of creative workflows, democratizing production capabilities, designing intuitive AI tools, protecting intellectual property, asset reusability, and the importance of human-centered design in AI development.
Transcript
Seth Earley:
Welcome to the Earley AI Podcast. I'm your host, Seth Earley, and today I have a fascinating guest—Charles Migos, a veteran toolmaker who has spent his career making emerging technologies accessible for creative professionals. Charles has worked across animation, post-production, visual effects, and large-scale media systems, and he's now focused on how generative AI can empower creatives. Charles, welcome to the show!
Charles Migos:
Thank you, Seth. Great to be here.
Seth Earley:
So Charles, let's start with the state of the creative industry. How is AI impacting media and entertainment?
Charles Migos:
It's a time of tremendous change and, honestly, some stress. The industry has been dealing with macroeconomic pressures, and then generative AI comes along and completely disrupts traditional workflows. On one hand, it's incredibly exciting because these tools can dramatically speed up production and open up new creative possibilities. On the other hand, there's a lot of anxiety about what this means for jobs, for creative control, for the craft itself.
Seth Earley:
Let's talk about that transformation. How are creative jobs and processes changing?
Charles Migos:
The fundamental shift is that the barrier between concept and execution is collapsing. Traditionally, if you had an idea for a visual, you needed specialized skills and lots of time to bring it to life. You needed artists, technicians, editors. Now, with AI tools, you can go from concept to something tangible much faster. This is democratizing creativity in a way we've never seen before. Directors can now explore visual ideas directly. Producers can participate in the creative process. Even clients can engage more meaningfully in the storytelling.
Seth Earley:
That sounds powerful, but also potentially threatening to traditional creative roles.
Charles Migos:
It is, and we need to be honest about that. Some roles are going to change significantly. But I don't think AI is replacing creatives—I think it's changing what being creative means. The craft is evolving. Instead of spending hours on technical execution, creatives can spend more time on the truly creative parts—the storytelling, the emotional impact, the artistic vision. But you need the right tools to enable that.
Seth Earley:
And that's where you come in. Tell me about your approach to building AI tools for creatives.
Charles Migos:
My philosophy has always been to start with the user, with the creative. What are they trying to achieve? What are their workflows? What feels natural to them? A lot of AI tools are built by engineers for engineers. They're prompt-based, they require technical knowledge, they don't fit into existing creative processes. What I'm focused on is building tools that feel intuitive, that give creatives precise control, that disappear into the creative process rather than getting in the way.
Seth Earley:
Can you give an example of what that looks like in practice?
Charles Migos:
Sure. Instead of just typing a text prompt and hoping you get something close to what you want, imagine being able to manipulate visual elements directly—changing lighting, adjusting composition, modifying characters—and seeing the results instantly. Imagine being able to iterate rapidly, to explore different creative directions, to build on previous work. That's the kind of control that creatives need. They need fine-grained control, not just high-level prompts.
Seth Earley:
You mentioned building on previous work. Talk about asset reusability and why that matters.
Charles Migos:
This is huge for agencies and studios. Every project creates assets—characters, environments, visual styles. Traditionally, those assets are locked into that specific project. But what if you could reuse them, adapt them, build on them for future projects? That's where real efficiency comes from. You're not starting from zero every time. You're building a library of creative assets that can be mixed, matched, and modified. This dramatically reduces costs and increases creative output.
Seth Earley:
That makes sense from a business perspective. But what about the creative perspective? Doesn't that risk everything looking the same?
Charles Migos:
Only if you use it wrong. The key is modularity and flexibility. You're not just copying and pasting. You're taking elements and transforming them, combining them in new ways, using them as starting points for new creative exploration. It's like having a palette of visual building blocks that you can assemble and modify to create something unique.
Seth Earley:
Let's talk about intellectual property and ethics. These are big concerns with generative AI.
Charles Migos:
Absolutely. And they should be. When you're dealing with creative content, IP protection is fundamental. Who owns the generated content? What training data was used? Can you prove that your AI didn't plagiarize? These are critical questions. And then there are ethical concerns around deepfakes, around using people's likenesses without permission, around content manipulation. The tools need to have guardrails built in. They need to respect IP. They need to enable ethical use, not just enable any use.
Seth Earley:
How do you approach that in your tool development?
Charles Migos:
Several ways. First, transparency about training data. Second, clear attribution and licensing. Third, built-in controls that prevent misuse. Fourth, giving users the ability to control and audit what the AI is doing. It's not just about building powerful tools—it's about building responsible tools.
Seth Earley:
You've talked about collaboration. How does AI change how creative teams work together?
Charles Migos:
It fundamentally changes the dynamic. Instead of a linear process where one person does their part and hands it off to the next, you can have much more collaborative, iterative workflows. Everyone can see and contribute to the creative evolution in real-time. The director can explore ideas with the cinematographer. The client can provide feedback on actual visuals, not just scripts or storyboards. This speeds up the creative process and improves communication.
Seth Earley:
What about the learning curve? How do you make these tools accessible to people who aren't technical?
Charles Migos:
That's the whole point. The best AI tools are the ones that disappear into the creative process, that feel natural and intuitive rather than requiring you to learn a whole new way of working. You design for the creative's mental model, not the engineer's mental model. You use familiar metaphors, familiar interactions. You hide the complexity under the hood. The creative shouldn't have to think about tokens or latent spaces or diffusion models. They should just think about the story they're trying to tell.
Seth Earley:
What advice would you give to organizations that are trying to integrate AI into their creative workflows?
Charles Migos:
First, start with the problem, not the technology. What are you trying to achieve? What are the pain points in your current workflows? Second, involve the creatives from the beginning. Don't just hand them tools and expect them to figure it out. Third, invest in the right tools. Not just the flashiest or the cheapest, but the ones that actually fit your workflows and empower your team. Fourth, think about the whole ecosystem—not just individual tools, but how they work together, how they integrate with your existing systems. And fifth, focus on augmentation, not replacement. The goal is to make your creatives more creative, not to replace them.
Seth Earley:
Any final thoughts on where creative AI is headed?
Charles Migos:
We're still in the early days. The technology is evolving rapidly. But I think the winners will be the tools that truly empower creatives, that honor the craft, that make the creative process more joyful and more effective. It's not about automation for its own sake. It's about giving people the ability to create faster and better than they ever have before, to collaborate in new ways, to bring their visions to life more fully. That's what excites me about this space.
Seth Earley:
Well, Charles, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights.
Charles Migos:
Thank you, Seth. It's been a pleasure.
Seth Earley:
And thank you to our listeners. You can find Charles on LinkedIn and learn more about his work at intangible.ai. Thanks for tuning in to the Earley AI Podcast, and we'll see you next time!