How AI Poisons Creativity
An important subject that I've wanted to make a video about for a long time. Hope you enjoy. Would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
Comments (39)
Hi, new Patron sub here! I've loved your work on YT and decided this was worth my Patreon dollar. I think this is a tender subject because AI can be a useful tool when used as a tool and not a substitute for the process. When I was introduced to ChatGPT, I had so much going on that was robbing me of my creative bandwidth that it helped re-prime that pump. The "interactions" I had with it and what I co-created with it really did help me regain connection with my creative self, a connection that had been disconnected over time. A few years later... I've reconnected with my voice and my writing style and, overall, am returning to IRL creativity - not just writing, but granny crafts, visual arts, and new creative ventures - over digital. I'm reading more than I did. I'm using AI more for tedious workflows (like calendar management) than I did 2 years ago, but I do like having this digital research assistant.
I'm in medicine and use AI for "nonfiction" uses. Finding sources, summarizing, re-structuring texts. Medicine is described as an infinite collection of unconnected facts. AI is very helpful to make this navigable. I think it actually creates more room for creativity(?). But your warning here is more general. -- Am I fooling myself with story of AI opening up space for creativity? Given how much my field is being disrupted by AI, the idea that it can open up new possibilities for me is very tempting...
Not that I expect anyone to spend 10 minutes listening to my response to this video. The TLDR is AI doesn't poison creativity for me because I use it differently. For me, AI is a companion "know it all" I can talk to. Not arguing it can't be a poison to others: https://youtu.be/KrKPzGLhjQs?si=IN6z59cn7BS8wtwu
I watched! I don't think we disagree actually. The point of my video was: use it in whatever way works for you, so long as you understand and recognize what it does for you, and/or what it doesn't. If you feel that using it does not interfere with your particular creative process, then that's a personal call. And as you point out, it all depends on your objectives - ie. reaching an audience.
the "articulate a prompt" piece seems like the most important and least supported part of your argument. you will no longer be able to articulate it in the UX metaphors of prior tools, but perhaps you will find new ways to articulate it? new tools and uses now that they are "smarter" in some way?
Have you made music we can listen to?
For sure! Prob my favourite is this little bit of chill electronic music I made a few years back. My childhood dream was to make video game music, so that's what I tried to do here lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O8uI4g7U1k
Congrats on going full time as a YouTuber. Your channel is one of the best. Can’t wait to see what the future brings for your videos.
Thanks friend, I'm taking a few days to adjust and then I'm gonna post an exclusive on Patreon just talking about where the channel is at and what I'm hoping to do next. I have much to think about!
One of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time. I’m curious, would you ever consider making a little behind the scenes of how you write your videos? I’m assuming you write them out first and read from a Teleprompter app. I’m currently working hard on a YouTube channel myself about 3-D printing and I find putting together videos, insanely arduous, and I would really appreciate any kind of help with the process of getting a video out there
One video idea on my list is to do something like "how to write for youtube", or something to that effect. Tricky part is that every youtube needs to write differently, in my view. But I guess that would be what the video is about. That said, there are some standard practices. One big one: think in "scenes" - separate your spoken dialogue into sections for sure. It might not seem like I do that, but if you listen carefully you'll see it. Thanks for your interest in the channel my friend.
So many things to push back on. Where do I start? Firstly, I've been a professional software developer for 35+ years. I've been leaning into using AI/LLMs in my coding ever since CoPilot was in beta. I have a lot of experience in *how to use AI* to get the result I want. That out of the way, I'm also a novelist, and I use Claude Code as my editor in much the same way any writer would use an editor. Assuming that editor is available 24/7 to answer your every question. You assume that using AI makes a project easier. It's a tool to use to skip over a process and arrive at the end. But that's not what AI is good at. In my practise, AI makes the writing much harder and more time-consuming, but the final product is, in my estimation, much better. That's because I don't as my editor: "I'm having trouble with this scene, create three versions of how it could end." I think that's what you have in mind for AI in the creative process. But for me it is more like a conversation with an expert who I can converse with and eventually, through conversation with the AI and repeated drafts, I can come to a place where I'm happy with the product. AI didn't write it, but in many instances, I'm not sure I could have produced the quality that I did without it. It's much like your comment at about 8:35 in this video: you ask a friend for help. How is asking a friend for creative help any different from asking an AI? You're farming your creativity out to a person or an AI is no different. You could have improved this essay by giving the final draft to an AI and asking for a critique of the argument. I used the Sparkle to ask, "Do you see any logical flaws that the author makes in presenting his argument?" and I got a laundry list. The one that I noticed with the *slippery slope* fallacy. To be fair, almost everyone misappropriates the *slippery slope* fallacy, so you're in good company. If you had asked for AI to review this script, it wouldn't have made it easier. It would have made it harder, maybe even to the point that you completely changed the original thesis. Isn't that what you're after? One of the reasons I love your channel is the thought that you put into it. I can tell that you genuinely care about quality over quantity. That's why I look forward to every video you make. BTW, another way you could put AI to work is to help you choose what you produce next. If you give AI a summary of all of your videos and the analytics for each, then you can let AI help you pick which of the things you want to produce next might be the most appealing. If you ever do want to level up in your AI skills, I'd be happy to give you some pointers.
I think software development might be a different game, but given that it's a creative field, I guess my argument applies. At the end of the day, my argument is "use it to the degree you feel is best for you", so I can see anyone doing coding simply saying "i need to use it a lot. Many of the commenters on YT said that. So I hope my argument doesn't come across as finger wagging; "you should never use it". Definitely not my perspective.
Isn't the creative process and seeing the pieces come together supposed to be the most rewarding part about creative work in the first place? Then why skip it? PS 2:58 hit hard haha
Easy answer is people want the accolades and don't really see the value in the process. Maybe they've never been that creative in life to begin with?
Great video! Thank you for fighting the good fight.
As a software engineer having had LLMs be pushed on me earlier this year to be incorporated into my workflows (which I took on seriously to evaluate how much benefit they bring), I have noticed a lot of negative effects on my mental processes and ability to reason. My ADHD brain is a lot less willing to sludge through things to really learn something new or figure something out the hard way if I know in the back of my head I could generate a facsimile to what I want in 10 minutes. It's really harming my ability to do personal projects too, where the point isn't the end product, but knowing that I made it, that the project is an expression of me. Do you have any advice for someone trying to break out of using these tools to short circuit the hard parts of creativity? Is it just a matter of abstinence and banging my head against the wall until things click again?
Great questions. I find myself in the same conundrum. I'm in my 40s and not as quick as I once was and my mental issues compound. I sometimes resign myself to the idea that I'll only be relying on AI in the latter part of my professional life and that's far less damning than adopting it whole cloth as a young person. It's a constant tug of war.
Congrats on going full time YouTube content creator!! I've been working on an engineering project the past year and a half, and I knew the part that would cause me the most headache was coming up with the computer code to run some of the mechanical components. I am not a programmer, have had nothing but bad experiences trying to "learn" programming, and generally find it merely as a tool to achieve greater things. I am happy to say that ChatGPT wrote all of this code for me, and to a far better effect than I could ever have done. I frankly don't care that I didn't go through the struggle of learning the various programming and scripting languages I now use to see this project to the end. So, your point is well taken, but if ChatGPT can help you across what would otherwise be a permanent stumbling block, by all means man, let the LLM do the drudgery.
I'm currently making an anime-style feature length film. I wrote out the script and dialog, scenes, plotlines yadda yadda and now spend inordinate amounts of time getting AI to generate the exact scenes I envisaged. It has taken about a month to get 7 minutes of footage and much of that I need to go back and touch up. The amount of writing for the thousands of prompts alone far exceeds the script already. Realistically, I would not be able to do this without AI. If you knew that the story itself, the dialog and characters were all created by a human and AI was the last step in the process to bring it to life, would you consider the final product a creative work? I'm curious if it would be rejected solely on the basis that AI was used to create the visuals. The point you made about the final product being better because you pause along the way is spot on. As I wait for the 9th try for a 6-second clip to be generated, I have time to think about every detail of that particular scene. I've made hundreds of small changes as a result, some of which have impacted the overall story fairly significantly. Really happy you're going full time as a YouTuber. This channel should have millions of subscribers as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks, friend. You pose an interesting question. When I wrote this video, I tried to really make it clear that I don't judge anyone for using AI. That's not the point. I'm really trying to say it's a personal choice. The caution I'm trying to share is that using AI, though helpful, comes at a cost. Only you can decide, for your own personal project, whether that cost is worth it. I just think people need to be very mindful of the tradeoffs of bypassing certain limitations and challenges in the creative process, especially if your goal is to learn, grow, improve, and work professionally in a creative field. My intent isn't to vilify the technology necessarily (though I do make fun of it in this video lol). It's more "heads up – there are trade offs".
I can't tell you how happy I am that you've committed to become a full-time YouTuber! Wish you all the best Andrew! 💪 Also: great video 🙌
Thanks Teresa, your support has meant a lot. I'll provide further updates in an exclusive video sometime soon
Sam Dunn from BangerFilms once threw out a quip that "metalheads can smell a poser a mile away" and that quote really sums up my entire feelings about use of AI in the creative process. Kill Posers. This doesn't seem to be a technology that brings improvement by doing things humans cannot, but rather it does things Humans are too lazy to do. "All this machinery making modern music can still be open hearted. Not so fully charted, it's really just a question of your honesty, yeah, your honesty."
Haha, that word "poser" takes me back to the 90s for sure. Actually a really great term
Congrats one going fulltime! If you raise your prices we will be HAPPY to pay. Do it!
Thanks, means a lot. No price increase - in fact you'll just be getting more bang for buck. Probably more releases, better videos, and more exclusive content
Slopocalypse! Chef’s kiss. Despite being an AI nanobot cluster ourselves, we adore your takedown of Earth-style AI.
The idea that creativity isn’t a “thing” but is a *process* isn’t relevant to a lot of people. I don’t know if it can be taught to those who don’t care, who just want the shiny thing at the end.
Happy to hear you’re able to go full time YouTuber! Something I’ve found interesting is a change in my writing, both professionally and creatively is that I’m purposefully avoiding em dashes and other AI cliches. Now I have to have avoid useful tools to sound authentic… like your fun random bits in the video. Do you think this “avoidance” will lead us down a path of restrictive creative output, or open up new possibilities for the absurd and other new avenues of creative expression?
So hard to say, and I'm not even convinced that going out of our way to sound "not AI" will even work. To be honest, I don't really know what else to do lol
Slippery slop! Pass me them pickles! Art, you have truly outdone yourself.
* tips fedora *
That’s my secret cap, all my creative work already regresses to the mean without any AI use (😭). And the tell for me that this script wasn’t AI generated was because I could sense a Matrix reference coming, but an LLM surely would’ve gone with Smith’s speech (“I say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you, it really became our civilization…”). Congratulations going full time with this! Glad to support and know my few dollars a month help make that a reality!
Thanks, it makes a HUGE difference. I'm gonna do a video for my Patreon friends telling the story of why I quit my job and talking about the future. That'll be coming soon.
I see AI usage as close to an analogy for the law of diminishing returns. Your output might be high at first, but the more it replaces your actual experience, the more trouble you might have understanding and knowing what even was created and how to push it forward (or rather how to prompt AI to push it forward for you). I think it's unfortunate that a lot of industries are pushing AI usage so heavily that some people might be stuck having to rely on it..
The more I think about AI, the more I realize that the real downsides are going to play out over a LONG time period, and by that time, the damage might be too late to undo.
More clips of you "working" please. They are very funny.
I second this!