Look, AI and creativity? It’s complicated.

takes a long sip of lemonvox and leans back in the lawn chair

Alright, so everyone’s losing their minds about whether AI is gonna kill creativity or make us all Picassos overnight. And honestly? After diving deep into this rabbit hole for a couple weeks now and talking to friends who are in the space, the answer is way more interesting than either side wants to admit.

Here’s the thing that’s got me fired up: AI isn’t killing creativity—it’s just forcing us to figure out what the hell creativity actually is. And that’s beautiful, man. Really beautiful.

The Beatles just broke my brain

So check this out. You know how The Beatles released “Now And Then” recently? That song Paul called “the final Beatles song”? Well, plot twist—they used AI to make it happen. John Lennon had this demo from the ‘70s on a busted old cassette, vocals all muddy and mixed up with piano. Audio engineers tried for decades to separate that stuff. Couldn’t do it.

Then AI shows up and goes, “Hold my beer.” Boom. Clean vocals. Grammy winner.

Now, before you start thinking robots wrote a Beatles song, pump the brakes. All the AI did was solve a technical problem. It didn’t write lyrics about love and loss, didn’t compose that haunting melody, didn’t make us all cry thinking about John. That was pure human magic—just with a really good technical assistant.

And that right there? That’s the whole story in a nutshell.

Artists are having an identity crisis (and it’s fascinating)

gestures wildly with drink

So I’m looking at all these surveys and studies, right? And the numbers are absolutely wild. Get this: 74% of artists think AI training is sketchy as hell, but 65% of them are using it for brainstorming.

That’s like saying “I don’t trust this hammer, but damn if it doesn’t nail things real good.”

And here’s where it gets really interesting—when artists use AI tools, their productivity shoots up 25%. Twenty-five percent! But here’s the kicker: while individual artists are crushing it, the overall creative landscape is getting… well, kind of samey.

It’s like AI is this incredible amplifier. If you’re already good, it makes you way better. But if everyone’s using the same amplifier, everything starts sounding a bit similar. Not the same, mind you, just… familiar.

Scott Eaton, a sculptor, who’s doing this mind-bending work mixing AI with traditional techniques. He put it perfectly: “Working with AI is like having the world’s fastest art assistant who never gets tired and always says yes.” The creativity is still coming from him—the AI just helps him explore way more possibilities way faster.

The money situation is getting weird

chuckles and shakes head

Oh man, the economics of this whole thing. It’s like watching someone juggle flaming chainsaws while riding a unicycle. Terrifying but you can’t look away.

Musicians are freaking out because studies say they might lose 24% of their income by 2028. That’s real money, real careers, real lives. But then you flip the coin—companies using AI in creative work are seeing revenue growth that’s 4x higher than everyone else.

So what’s happening? AI is basically eating all the boring stuff. You know, the generic background music for elevators, the stock photos that look like every other stock photo, the copy-paste marketing content that makes your soul die a little. All that commodity creative work? Yeah, AI’s got that covered.

But the human stuff—the stuff that makes you feel something? That’s becoming more valuable than ever.

One of my buddies, who’s using AI to handle all the routine writing tasks so his team can focus on strategy and storytelling. His team’s productivity went through the roof, but they’re not doing less creative work—they’re doing better creative work.

The authenticity wars are real

leans forward conspiratorially

Okay, so there’s this whole drama going down. Some guy named Jason Allen used AI to create this gorgeous artwork, won a state fair competition, then couldn’t get copyright protection because it wasn’t “human enough.”

And artists are pissed. Like, really pissed. Their work is being used to train these AI systems without permission, and then AI is spitting out stuff that looks like their style. Imagine someone took photos of your face to teach a robot how to impersonate you, then that robot started showing up to family dinners.

But here’s what’s fascinating—even when AI creates something that looks identical to human art, people still value the human-made stuff more. Not because it’s technically better, but because of the story behind it.

It’s like… you can make a perfect synthetic diamond that’s chemically identical to a natural one, but people still pay more for the one that took millions of years to form under pressure. There’s something about the human struggle, the intention, the lived experience that we just can’t fake.

Your brain on AI is actually pretty cool

gets animated

So neuroscientists hooked people up to brain scanners while they worked with AI, and guess what? The AI doesn’t shut down creativity—it actually triggers the same brain networks that fire when you’re daydreaming or having those shower epiphanies.

But—and this is important—there’s a catch. If you lean on AI too much, your brain starts getting lazy. It’s like using GPS everywhere and then suddenly you can’t find your way to the grocery store without it.

The sweet spot seems to be using AI as a creative sparring partner, not a replacement brain. Like having a conversation with someone who always has interesting ideas but zero judgment about quality. You still gotta figure out which ideas are worth pursuing.

The “democratization” thing is… complicated

takes another sip, looks thoughtful

Everyone’s saying AI democratizes creativity, right? Gives everyone a shot at being an artist. And sure, there’s truth to that. I’ve read about kids with dyslexia use AI to overcome writing barriers, small business owners create professional-looking content they never could’ve afforded before.

But let’s be real—the people getting the most out of AI are the ones who already had skills and resources. It’s like giving everyone a Ferrari. Sounds great until you realize some people have racetracks and others are stuck in traffic.

The danger isn’t that AI makes creativity too easy—it’s that it might concentrate creative power in the hands of whoever controls the AI systems. That’s a conversation we need to have before it’s too late.

Musicians are leading the way (as usual)

grins

Musicians, man. They always figure this stuff out first. Take Everything Everything—this band that used AI trained on LinkedIn corporate speak and 4chan comments (I know, stay with me) to generate lyrics. Sounds like a disaster, right?

Nah. They used that AI-generated weirdness as creative prompts, then crafted it into actual meaningful songs. The result? Their album hit the top 4 in the UK charts.

They didn’t let AI write their music—they used it to push themselves into creative territories they never would’ve explored otherwise. It’s like having a friend who always suggests the weirdest restaurant in town. Sometimes it’s terrible, but sometimes you discover your new favorite dish.

Here’s what I think is really happening

sets down drink, gets serious for a moment

AI isn’t replacing human creativity. It’s making us figure out what human creativity actually is. And turns out, it’s not about technical skill or perfect execution—it’s about meaning, emotion, lived experience, and the ability to make sense of the chaos of being human.

AI can copy the brush strokes of Van Gogh, but it can’t feel the isolation and mental anguish that drove him to create. It can write technically perfect lyrics, but it can’t channel the heartbreak of losing someone you love.

The artists, writers, and creators who are thriving right now aren’t the ones fighting AI or completely surrendering to it. They’re the ones learning to dance with it. Using it to handle the technical heavy lifting so they can focus on the stuff only humans can do—finding meaning in madness, connection in isolation, beauty in brokenness.

The bottom line

stands up, gestures broadly

We’re not witnessing the death of human creativity. We’re watching it evolve. AI is forcing creators to level up their game, to be more intentional about what makes their work uniquely human.

And honestly? I think that’s beautiful. Because at the end of the day, the most powerful creative force in the universe isn’t some algorithm—it’s a human being with something to say, sitting down with whatever tools they can find, trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful, heartbreaking experience we call life.

AI is just another tool in the toolkit. A really powerful, sometimes scary, occasionally brilliant tool. But it’s not the artist. It never will be.

The artist is still you. The artist is still us. And that’s not changing anytime soon.

raises glass

Now, who wants another drink while we figure out how to make the most beautiful, meaningful, authentically human art this world has ever seen?

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Because at the end of the day, robots might be able to paint, but they’ll never know what it feels like to watch a sunset and have their heart break a little at the beauty of it all. And that, my friends, is where the magic lives.