Here’s Why AI Isn’t A Real Threat To Creativity

You have probably heard all the hype. More and more AI chatbots are making it into our mainstream media and the workplace. People are using tools like ChatGPT to create content, business plans, and even art, and I feel my community of creatives starting to shake in their boots. My friends are worried that their creativity will no longer be needed and our species will die!  

Will these AI bots replace human creatives? My answer: NOT A CHANCE, and here’s why.

My brother recently introduced me to ChatGPT, a cool and interesting AI program. It’s an innovative program, but it is a program. Before I run into the reasons why we creatives are going to be ‘fine’, let’s understand a little more about what AI is and is not. 

AI, or artificial intelligence, has the potential to enhance human creativity rather than replace it. While AI can perform tasks and generate output based on data and algorithms, it lacks the capacity for original thought and creativity that is unique to humans. In other words, AI has no soul, no humanity, and no capacity to be spontaneous.

Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. I’ll repeat the “of being human.” It involves the ability to generate unique ideas and connect seemingly unrelated concepts in new and innovative ways through the eyes of the human experience. This requires imagination, insight, and critical thinking – skills that AI systems do not and cannot possess. (Why? Because they are made by humans, duh.) AI can serve as a tool to support and facilitate human creativity by providing access to vast amounts of data and information in a short period of time and assist in tasks such as image or text generation, but it can’t be unique as the data and information it generates can only exist from what has been created before and what it has access to. 

This is why it’s important to recognize that AI is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used in a variety of ways. While AI can automate certain tasks and make them more efficient, it cannot replace the human element of creativity and originality… because why? It’s not human. Creativity is about breaking the rules and changing the guidelines – it involves the ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems. For example, the pool noodle. Do you think AI could have come up with that genius? I think not. 

AI has indeed made remarkable progress in areas such as image and language generation, but these advances are based on patterns and trends that have been identified in existing data, data that wouldn’t exist without the original thoughts of humanity. They cannot and do not represent true creativity in the same way that a human artist or writer can create something truly original.

So, while AI may be able to produce output that is visually or linguistically similar to human-generated content, it lacks the depth and nuance of true human creativity, aka the human experience. It cannot tap into the emotions, experiences, and cultural context that shapes the way we create and interpret art and literature.

It is also worth considering the ethical implications of relying too heavily on AI in creative fields. Creativity is an important part of what makes us human—it connects us. Outsourcing it to machines will have negative consequences for both individuals and society as a whole. Life as we know it will become robotic and predictable. Welcome to the world of The Truman Show. 

So to all my creative friends, please don’t fear. While AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we work and live, it is important to remember that it cannot replace human creativity. Why? Because it ain’t human. While AI can assist and enhance our creative abilities, it cannot fully replicate the unique qualities that make us human.

AI will never be able to fall in love, understand heartbreak, go through grief, experience nature, or feel touch and human connection. 

Instead of seeing AI as a threat, we should embrace it as a tool that can help us to achieve new heights of creativity and innovation—or at the very least, it could do all my shitty life admin tasks, like order my groceries or do my taxes, and I can go and sit in a cafe, drink loads of coffee, and get lost in being creative. 

Keep being human.