You don't have to like it
I was listening to a podcast recently about AI and the arts, and there was a moment that really stuck with me.
One of the hosts described how he had used Sora 2 to create a music video for an unsigned rapper. Working within the industry he estimated the video would have cost around 15 million dollars to create without AI tools. Far from taking away from other artists, that video simply would not have existed before generative AI. No label is fronting that kind of budget for an unknown artist. No independent creator at that level can afford it.
So it’s not “taking away” from anyone.
It’s creating opportunities where there were previously none. Now, creatives of all levels and backgrounds can leverage the tools to get paid for a job that didn’t exist even six months ago. The rapper can potentially attract more people to their music because they have a compelling video that punches way above what their budget “should” allow.
AI is opening up entirely new spaces for work, collaboration, and creativity. There’s always going to be “slop”. But that’s not new and it’s not unique to AI.
YouTube is full of terrible videos that no one watches.
Spotify is packed with self-published bands who no one listens to.
Every other day a new podcast appears that won’t attract anyone because there’s no real substance behind it.
Just because AI is now enabling a different set of people the ability to contribute doesn’t suddenly change the rule that the cream will rise to the top.
If there’s a following for an AI-made version of something, you don’t have to like it – but you do have to respect that other people may do. It’s just a new source of creativity, another tool in the box. Just as with all the parallels throughout time, there should be room for all things if they come from an honest place and are genuinely compelling to an audience [even if you’re not one of them]. Just because photography exists doesn’t mean portrait painters vanished.
New mediums don’t erase the old ones; they sit alongside them, sometimes reshaping their role, sometimes even increasing their value.
AI is the same, it will make some kinds of work less viable and unlock entirely new ones. But the idea that it simply “takes” rather than “creates” is far too simplistic.
You don’t have to like it, but it’s here for some time.
