This past Friday, March 6, I went about my usual morning routine, which is always followed by exiting my apartment and choosing an album to be a pleasant backdrop while I’m waiting for the bus.
Naturally, as a childhood One Direction fan, my album of choice for the day was Harry Styles’ newest drop, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.”
While listening to the track “Are You Listening Yet?” (by far my favorite off the album), I found myself spiraling on a thought while grooving to the pleasant percussive motion of the song: being creative in the age of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
This thought was triggered in part because I find music to be one of the most human things possible — the antithesis to AI, if you will. And, whenever I’m listening to a song I know will become a new obsession, I think about the multitude of lived experiences that lead to it.
The thought was also triggered by a recent announcement from Apple Music. The company announced in a newsletter sent to industry partners that they will be launching an AI transparency tag, meaning partners and distributors on the app will require disclosure of AI in the future.
Generative AI is a type of AI where users can input various prompts and generate new content like images, videos, sounds, etc. These AI models are trained by content already present on the internet.
Caitlin Petre and Julia Ticona, both sociologists who study the impacts of technology on people and society, wrote an article for The New York Times titled “The Starving Artist vs. A.I.: Guess Who Is Winning?”
In the article, Petre and Ticona talk about how a lot of entry-level positions in creative fields are being replaced by AI models.
Writer rooms, once filled with aspiring creatives looking to collaborate, are dwindling. Only those in senior positions have the privilege of staying. AI musical artists are making their breakthroughs onto the Billboard charts.
Creative fields are already competitive enough to get into, but they are becoming inaccessible as more and more companies deem it “easier” and more “efficient” to use AI models.
From AI Superbowl ads to social media trends about AI-generated images in the style of Studio Ghibli to romance novels being almost fully generated using AI, it has become hard not to get bogged down by the thought of AI taking over all creative outlets.
However, I think this gives more reason to create. Create. Continue to create. Be the most creative you can be.
What AI could never recreate is the spiritual act of transfiguring one’s lived experience, one’s being, into something so beautiful it moves others to create something of their own. AI could never do that.
I think back on some of my favorite creative works of all time, and, at their core, the reason why I liked them so much is because of how human they are.
James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” captures the self-destructive nature of internalized homophobia and toxic masculinity in a relationship — the most human of experiences. Samia’s “Is There Something In the Movies?” weaves together metaphors from the sentimental strings of the lived human experience.
Being creative has always been a means of challenging social norms, breaking away from the socially-constructed status quo, an embracing of the alternative. To create is one of the most human, if not the most human thing a person can do.
In this vein, being creative, even the smallest act of creativity, is a form of resistance. It always has been — even more now as AI seeks to be a new “means” of creating.
So, I urge you to find something creative to do. It could be something simple. Create a digital collection in your notes app of words that move you. Pick up painting even if you were never good at it as a kid (I personally plan on trying this one come spring).
Embrace what it means to be human, and create something beautiful from that.
Hirata can be reached at [email protected].
