I’m not anti-AI. Not at all. In fact, I use it daily in my role as a marketer at WordPress.com. It can be an incredible tool to help organise my thoughts, do research, help edit, and to remix my ideas in new ways that then spark other ideas.
But I’m often reminded of the places where AI erodes the creative experience. And I’m wary of relying on it too much to replace our creativity.
I feel the need to draw some conceptual boundaries around AI usage, to ensure that I retain my own unique creativity. That’s why I created my new zine: Human Creativity in the Age of AI.
The zine outlines my thoughts on five human values of creativity that are irreplaceable by AI. These values not only make human-generated creative work more enjoyable and fulfilling for the creative practitioner, but also more compelling for the audience:
- Humans are messy
- Our creative work has randomness and imperfection, that makes our work compelling. AI tries to make a finished, perfect product.
- Humans have taste
- Our preferences define our creative work and help us find our audience. AI doesn’t like or dislike anything.
- Humans struggle
- Humans create art from suffering, and the audience recognise their own struggle within it. AI doesn’t suffer, so its output can only mimic that struggle.
- Humans self-reflect
- We look at our work, determine whether it was successful, and make improvements. Without human intervention, AI can’t reflect or iterate on its output.
- Humans experience joy
- We are able to create in a flow state, feeling accomplishment and happiness in the process. AI churns out words, images, or videos with no emotion at all.
I illustrated the zine with robots. Using vintage toys as visual inspiration, I drew these in a very analog way: with a dip pen, brush pen, and ink. These are some of my favourite materials to use, even though they can be hard to control, because they produce lovely organic lines that are unmistakably hand-created.
I like how the robots seem to be a little awkward, and even forlorn. Almost like they are uncomfortable to be here — a thought that delights me!
Download and print your own copy of the zine here. (Please follow Austin Kleon’s excellent instructions for folding. And note — I’m in Australia and we use the incredibly logical ISO 216 standard for paper sizes. This zine was designed to be printed on A4 paper, so if printed on US Letter (bleh), it may not look or fold as intended.)
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