| The idea that as AI content floods the Internet that personal, human insight and communication will become morevaluable makes total sense. In fact, this is essentially the thesis of my previous essay The Post Social Network Internet where we discussed online social activities moving away from monolithic social networks, to smaller, diverse, more human spaces.
When goods become automated and machine-made, hand-made, human-made goods tend to go up in value, a lot.
We are moving into a world where text copy and images are trivial to create and the amount of "information" that will flood online sites will be exponentially greater. As Dan said in the quote above, most people will be overwhelmed.
But, as humans, we don't want to connect with machines, we want to connect with other humans. And we will seek out what he calls those "islands of personal, verifiable human insight." For it isn't AI, but humansthat have inspiration and insight, AI just spits out words based on an algorithm.
Have you heard of the "Doorman Fallacy"? (The idea was coined by Rory Southerland and he covers this, and other ideas, in his book, Alchemy, which I highly recommend creatives read as they think about their marketing).
The Doorman Fallacy is this: Mistaking the function of a doorman at a five-star hotel as opening and closing the door.
If that simple act is the doorman's true function, then why not just save money and use an automatic door opener? So the hotel hires a consultant who tells them to do just that. And they fire the doorman and a few months later discover that guests are becoming less satisfied with the hotel and their business is declining.
This is because the hotel forgot that the doorman performed a whole host of other human roles: he signified status, he recognized guests and made them feel good, he provided security, he helped keep the entryway clear of vagrants, he talked with other doormen and knew which guests were dodgy.
At this point, having fired the doorman, the hotel can't charge as much, but the consultant who recommended "firing the doorman" considers the whole thing a roaring success and has moved on to his next victim.
As Rory says,"Remember my argument against Silicon Valley: an automatic door does not replace a doorman."
And here's my riff on Rory's quote, "Remember my argument against AI: an automatic image renderer does not replace an artist."
When human connection, insight and ideas become scarce - fine artists will become morevaluable.
Rory makes another important point in Alchemy- humans value the effortput into something more than the purely logical function. Humans aren't logical - they are psycho-logical. And the fact we are not logical is what allows "magic" to exist.
Think about this: Why not just save money and send your daughter's wedding invitations by email?
What a waste of time and money to send them out on beautiful, expensive hand-addressed card stock!
Thinking AI images will replace paintings is like thinking email will replace sending physical wedding invitations!
We don't send email wedding invitations because weddings are a specialevent, and we send expensivecard stock to signal to other humans. That it is an important event. To signal that it issomething worth paying attention to. To signal that it is not an everyday occurrence. To signal that it is something sacred.
And your art and writing is the same way - it is set apart.
It is sacred.
Creatively, | 