If You’re Creative But Scared About AI, Watch This

If you're a creative trying to make a living these days, it's kind of tough not to feel like everything is getting harder. The whole world seems obsessed

harder. The whole world seems obsessed with tech and the pursuit of getting everything faster and cheaper and more efficiently every day.

>> It's getting harder to find work in the United States.

>> A tech utopia where humans barely have to work >> have come at the cost of the dismissal of hundreds of thousands of workers.

>> And in a world like that, what's even the point of being an artist or a filmmaker or a storyteller? The creative

class feels like it's under threat and everyone is constantly talking about AI taking over. So, if you're out there

taking over. So, if you're out there trying to make stuff for a living, whatever that looks like for you, it's hard not to be freaked out. Like, in a world of AIdriven perfection, will our creative skills even matter? But here's

the thing nobody talks about. The more

tech takes over, the more people are going to crave something it can never give them. So, yeah, I get that we're

give them. So, yeah, I get that we're all scared, but in this video, I'm going to break down why creativity is about to matter more than ever and why the future is going to belong to the storytellers.

And if you're someone who's scared about where your career is headed or whether there's even space for you in the world we're building, I made this video for you.

[Music] Let me start out here with the memory of the last time I cried while watching a movie because it definitely wasn't the kind of movie you'd expect it to be.

Actually, it was Train Spotting 2, the 2017 sequel to one of my all-time favorite movies. But if I'm being

favorite movies. But if I'm being honest, it was only just okay as a standalone film. I didn't tear up at the

standalone film. I didn't tear up at the brilliant plot or acting. And if the first movie hadn't been so impactful in my life, I probably never would have watched it. No. What got to me was the

watched it. No. What got to me was the nostalgia it triggered that brought me back 20 years to when I was a teenager watching it with my friends. Just like

the characters in the movies, we'd all gone different directions in life and some had done better than others. And

the movie brought all that back in a really powerful way. Now, if you didn't have the memories of watching the first train spotting 15 times in a summer with your friends in a hazy attic, then you probably wouldn't have felt much of

anything. But Transporting 2, as totally

anything. But Transporting 2, as totally imperfect as it was, legitimately choked me up in a way that no other movie has since. Totally weird, I know, but that's

since. Totally weird, I know, but that's the magic of art and the first reason that I think creatives are always going to have a place in this world. People

don't crave perfection, they crave connection. And if Train spotting 2 can

connection. And if Train spotting 2 can make me connect to my old friend so strongly that I cry, there's hope for all of us. You can see the same thing happening in music. AI can produce songs that are technically very close to any

superstar you can dream of. It can mimic phrasing and tempo and chord progression so closely that when it plays on a laptop, you might think it sounds pretty good. Like, check out those AI bands on

good. Like, check out those AI bands on Spotify right now, and you'll see what I mean. It's got all the markers of good

mean. It's got all the markers of good music. But what do people still do every

music. But what do people still do every week? They line up for concerts. They

week? They line up for concerts. They

buy tickets that are way too expensive.

They deal with all sorts of price fixing from greedy resellers, and when they get there, it's 20 bucks for a drink that you have to wait half an hour to get.

But people still do it gladly if they feel connected to that artist. And if

you pay attention to the videos that go viral on social media from those nights, it's rarely the clean, flawless renditions of the songs that get shared.

It's the one where the artist changes the name of the city or adds an inside joke to the lyrics or that random interaction with someone in the crowd like when that kid got to play guitar with the Foo Fighters and

was world famous for a couple of days.

These imperfections, if you want to call them that, are proof of having a real life experience. and we value them

life experience. and we value them because they make us feel part of something that happened once and won't ever happen exactly that way again. The

music is good, but the moment and the connection you feel to the others who share that moment with you, that's what really stands out as a memory. If the

future is an endless conveyor belt of perfect computerenerated singles, the scarce thing will be the messy ones that proves there was a person behind it. But

even though I believe all this to be true, I can still freak myself out if I think too deeply about where our current techdriven world is going, >> as creepy as that may be. So, I try to remind myself that we've been here

before. When photography was invented,

before. When photography was invented, it took about 2 seconds for people to start declaring that painting was dead forever. And there's no pretending it

forever. And there's no pretending it didn't seriously change things because why would you hire, I don't know, a portraitist to spend 4 days on your painting when you could get a family photo done in a few minutes. There was

probably a bunch of people who own portrait painting businesses who had a hard choice to make back then. You

either get so good at painting that people will keep paying you no matter what just for the privilege of owning something uniquely humanmade by you or you shift your business model to keep up with the times. And that's kind of

exactly what's happening now in film. We

just like to think that we're always living through something that's never happened before. Now the big difference

happened before. Now the big difference with the tech we're talking about today and the world changing inventions of the past like I don't know the printing press or the light bulb or something.

It's that what's happening now is impacting so many industries at the same time. AI is accelerating a structural

time. AI is accelerating a structural shift in the US labor market.

>> The scale and scope of these changes is going to impact more people over a shorter period of time than potentially anything else that's ever been invented.

But since no one really knows what's going to happen, no matter what they say on the internet, the best thing we can do is just look at what's already happened before. Like if we go back to

happened before. Like if we go back to the painters, some of those people were so dedicated and so talented that it didn't matter what happened to the portrait market, they'd still be getting high price commissions no matter what.

Now others may be people who love painting but weren't so obsessed with being the greatest portrait artists of all time. They started looking for new

all time. They started looking for new opportunities which led to impressionism and surrealism and all sorts of mind-blowing things that only existed because of their opposition to the

disruptive tech. Yes, there is a shakeup

disruptive tech. Yes, there is a shakeup underway that's going to change almost every business in the world over the next decade. And when the dust settles,

next decade. And when the dust settles, things won't look like they do today.

Beyond that, we just don't know what's coming. But we do know that through

coming. But we do know that through every cycle of change and upheaval that's ever been, creativity has continued to adapt and thrive, even if it doesn't look the same as it used to.

Some people are going to hate new ways of doing things and maybe vow not to change anything about their process for as long as they live. At the other extreme, you're going to get people who throw away everything old as useless and

only embrace the new stuff. Styles will

fade in and out of popularity. the

advertising money and social prestige will shift. But in my opinion, the

will shift. But in my opinion, the importance of creativity and art of all kinds is only going to matter more in an increasingly automated future. Because

yes, it's about how good the art itself is as an object, but beyond that, it's about the connection to the person behind the art. Think about someone like Anthony Bourdain. It's so easy these

Anthony Bourdain. It's so easy these days to get chat GPT to generate a perfect guide to restaurants in any travel destination in the world that if you were just trying to gather information, there are far more efficient ways to get it than

re-watching an episode of No Reservations. But people didn't watch

Reservations. But people didn't watch that show for the data. What they wanted was his voice. The show worked because he was able to sit down and connect with people from around the world in a way that made you feel like you were there,

like there was a real person taking you through the world that you would actually like to have a beer with. The

information was secondary to the connection. And if you're someone making

connection. And if you're someone making stuff for other people, that should be reassuring. Your audience, no matter

reassuring. Your audience, no matter what kind of thing you're creating, just doesn't want to know what you're making, they want to know who you are at the same time. And as cheap generated

same time. And as cheap generated content starts to clog everything up, that connection is only going to be more important when it comes to breaking through all the noise. It's happening in film right now. There are so many technically incredible films coming out

these days, and even the biggest Marvel bomb has a level of visual quality that the classic movies I grew up on could never match. But even though those kinds

never match. But even though those kinds of movies might be great vehicles for making money, they rarely move us.

Unless you're 10 or a super fan, then you just do you. Compare that to a scrappy indie movie like The Florida Project or something where that final scene was shot on an iPhone and it's insanely rough in terms of raw image

quality, but it actually makes you feel something. And that's why I'll now watch

something. And that's why I'll now watch anything Shawn Baker makes, but I couldn't care less about Aquaman 3 or whatever. Now, I do realize that nearly

whatever. Now, I do realize that nearly all Art is Commerce at the end of the day and that those big movies make way more money than any of the indie darlings that won Oscars last year. But

then I think about how quickly I got bored of the whole Marvel thing, no matter how much money they spend on making it perfect. And then when I think about what's coming in the future and the unlimited quantities of technically flawless content, I think there's a good

chance the attention starts flowing back in the other direction. Because the

human love of storytelling isn't just some hobby we invented with the internet. It's hardwired into our DNA.

internet. It's hardwired into our DNA.

Stories determine why we choose to elect certain people as leaders over others, why we'll go to war, how we define success, and so many other things in our society that have nothing to do with presenting facts. Just think about the

presenting facts. Just think about the current American political climate.

You're hardly voting based on the statistics either party presents. You're

choosing the story that resonates most with you. Obama and Trump told very

with you. Obama and Trump told very different stories, but they were both masters of it in their own way. And you

probably didn't vote for either of those people because of facts. Stories bring

meaning to complex events and frame them in a way that makes sense to us. And

even in the modern high-tech world, that wiring hasn't gone away. When a person can put a feeling into words or pictures or any kind of art, we instinctively lean in to listen. That's why

storytelling, aka creativity, isn't going anywhere. Campfires used to hold

going anywhere. Campfires used to hold together villages, and now it's screens in living rooms or group chats or even common sections in the more civil times.

The form might have changed, but the function hasn't. That's why a great

function hasn't. That's why a great sports documentary can turn people who've never watched a game into a mega fan, like the F1 boom, or why a memoir written by a stranger can make you cry.

Like, I was a directionless English teacher in South Korea when I saw the documentary War Photographer, and in 90 minutes, it sent me down a totally new path I never knew existed, and one that I'm still on today. Stories create

belonging and connection. And when

creative people do their jobs well, it brings people together through imagining the lives of others. Now, if that's a little too wishy-washy and you want more hard-nosed commercial reasons why creativity still matters, just look at

how money moves. Like, capital flows towards stories, and it always has. A

pitch deck for a $10 million commercial is just a story about a product. The

campaign for a Zenic is just a story about why your life would be better if you could just get skinny without working hard. a YouTube video reviewing

working hard. a YouTube video reviewing a new cinema camera is a story about how having a piece of gear maybe would transform your life. Even the most analytical investors, when you listen closely, they're talking about what they

believe, not just what they can measure.

You might hear them talk about where this economy is going or what this will unlock or what this means long term.

>> That would actually be a lot more consistent with the start of a recession >> cuz the economy is doing better than you think.

>> What they're really doing is telling a story about tomorrow in order to decide what they think they should do today.

Tech founders who raise absurd amounts of money quickly tend to be really good storytellers.

[Music] Just look at pre-politics Elon Musk. He

basically created the American electric car market by making people feel something about the new world they were buying into. And then just as quickly,

buying into. And then just as quickly, the stories he was telling made the same people turn against him. When you shape raw information into a narrative with stakes in a destination, you move people. And people move money. Just

people. And people move money. Just

remember, Leonardo da Vinci worked as a weapons designer to pay the bills.

Thinking that these rules don't apply to you is to ignore most of creative history. And I don't know you, maybe you

history. And I don't know you, maybe you truly are exceptional. But odds are you're not that different than any other creative person who's ever lived. Now,

maybe you're thinking it's totally different now and that the flood of cheap generic content is drowning out real people. But this is what's known as

real people. But this is what's known as the paradox of abundance. When

everything is available, nothing feels valuable unless it carries a story with it. That's why a Rolex is worth a

it. That's why a Rolex is worth a thousand times more than a Casio. And

iPhones dominate the market, no matter how much more expensive they are than their competitors. In my own industry, I

their competitors. In my own industry, I see it all the time. Like, a new gear company will make something that competes with much more expensive established players at a small fraction of the price, but because they have no

reputation, aka no story behind their brand, their cheapness actually counts against them, and established cinematographers won't use them. The

same thing is true for people. And

that's what we're seeing with social media replacing traditional media as the dominant form of entertainment. People

form connections to other people and that's who they want to experience the world through. You used to have to

world through. You used to have to listen to whoever the gatekeepers gave you to choose from, even if you didn't really identify with those people. Now

though, you're free to follow whoever's story resonates most with you. And so,

as people's attention has followed that connection, so too has gone the money.

Now, the point isn't that we should all quit making art to be on TikTok because that's where the most eyeballs are. It's

that without a story, without that human connection, it won't matter how much or how perfect the AI content gets, it's not going to make us feel anything. And

that's when you realize that your voice and your taste and your ideas are going to be the most valuable thing you have.

People might be seeing quick gains by flooding the market with cheap garbage these days. But that's shortsighted and

these days. But that's shortsighted and in the end, it's only going to lead to their own downfall.

Now, let's circle back to where this whole conversation started in the first place. the fear of creative irrelevance

place. the fear of creative irrelevance in a world that prizes efficiency over everything else. Like we said,

everything else. Like we said, efficiency might lead to good quarterly earnings reports for a few years, but that kind of art won't be able to connect with people long term, and they're going to lose interest fast.

Compare that to something like Game of Thrones or Ted Lasso during COVID or the other things that came out of nowhere to capture everyone's attention with their originality. AI generated material just

originality. AI generated material just doesn't elicit those reactions from people. It can speed up the boring parts

people. It can speed up the boring parts of the process so you can spend more time on making emotional stuff. It can

help you iterate and test and explore.

Or it can make room for you to go outside and take a walk that leads to you thinking of an ending you didn't know you were looking for. And it's also going to put a lot of people in technical roles out of a job. But it's

not going to kill creativity. If

anything, it's going to make it even more important. So where does all this

more important. So where does all this leave us? Well, in my opinion, it's

leave us? Well, in my opinion, it's pretty simple. The more technology

pretty simple. The more technology floods us with technically perfect content, the more real value concentrates in the few things technology can't fake. lived

experiences, unique points of view, emotional risks, and building a relationship with an audience. The more

generically perfect things get, the more people are interested in what you specifically have to say. So, if you've been sitting on the sidelines because you're scared what you make doesn't matter anymore, please think again.

Creativity and new ideas are going to be the currency of the future. And in my opinion anyways, it's the people who are making things in public who are going to stand out from the noise. So, don't wait for the landscape to stabilize because it's not going to. Don't wait for

permission because no one is going to discover your hidden talents out of the blue. I promise. So, just keep making

blue. I promise. So, just keep making stuff and putting it out into the world and good things will happen. See you.