Why It's Essential for Humans to Create, Even If AI Feels Threatening
Hey there creatives, and welcome back.
To be clear, I'm a real human. This is not an AI model putting these blogs out. This is actually me.
This is a crazy time, right? My feed got flooded with AI slop. My eye for recognizing it is getting better thankfully, especially for music. OMG, the music. But we also know that the AI is going to get better at creating and imitating. I think we all used to think that when the robots finally came, they were going to be trash and postal workers and stuff. Turns out they're taking all the creative work. And if you're scared about it, I understand. I also want to say, don't waste your time.
Here's the thing. Did AI take your job? I don't know. Maybe. Did it? If it didn't, then no. Is it going to? Maybe. But also, no. Because the AI will never be what you are and that is human. Here's the thing about AI, if you haven't realized it yet: it learns based on human creation. It’s reading the entire internet and watching everything ever created. Like, AI did in fact finish Netflix. It finished it. Probably finished YouTube also. It can consume really fast and regurgitate really fast and it is a little terrifying. My husband just showed me this app that creates music based on a prompt, and this high-level, well-paid musician was like, "Oh snap, this is my job. I create commissioned music for people and look at this AI app do it faster… like way faster."
So did AI take our jobs? No. Because there's a loop trap. Because AI just learns from the internet - which is human creation. It looks at paintings and then it imitates them. It listens to music and then it imitates it. AI is not creative. It is a regurgitation machine. Do not stop creating beautiful authentic human work. Do not stop doing it because the AI is learning from what you create. And the more that it puts on the internet, it's going to start learning from its own stuff. It's going to be a copy of a copy of a copy, and it's going to get worse and worse. Yes, the AI models might get smarter or better or faster at doing things, but if we don't keep putting authentic human-made work into the machine that is the internet - the information machine - AI has nothing to copy. It is going to start creating worse and worse work.
Let's be real, we can tell what it is anyways. I don't know about you, but I can feel the soullessness in the music. There's a lack of complexity. There's a lack of human emotion. There's a predictability to it. Even with AI artwork right now, oh my gosh, it has an artistic voice that is easily recognized. It's it's a loop trap. We have to keep creating more human soulful work. Yes, AI is gonna copy and regurgitate it, but who cares? You create work because it fills your soul, and you share work because it fills other people's souls. AI can't take that away from us. It might take your job, but the world's going to evolve. Technology has taken jobs before and we’ll be okay. Please don't go down the rabbit hole of doom and gloom. The world needs your artwork now more than ever. The internet needs you to put your artwork into it. Please, please, please keep creating your work so that my feed is not full of only AI slop.
Do not let this take you down a doom and gloom space. We need your creative work now more than ever.
Now, as for the question, did AI actually take your job? I don't know. It it might, but it will never take the human connection that we have. Your artwork is real and it comes from a human soul, and you know that you can feel the difference. So do not stop creating. If nothing else, give the AI something else to regurgitate. Don't be sad. Go create.
If you enjoyed today's weird post, let me know in the comments if AI has affected your job already, whether it's taking your job or giving you tools to make your job easier or better. Let's get a conversation going and see how AI is affecting creatives. But don't stop creating.
If you would like to dive deeper into the creative pool with me, then do sign up below to receive my weekly newsletter.
That's a wrap. Now go do your creative work.