I was thinking about starting a new creative project recently. But then I thought - with how quickly AI is advancing, in just a few years an AI will probably be able to do this in just minutes. So it made me feel kind of apathetic and think, “Why should I bother starting this big project now if an AI could do it for me in a few years?”
I’m curious if others feel this way or if the advancement of AI is making people less motivated to start big, creative projects since the work could just be automated by an AI soon anyways. It could increase apathy and make people feel like “why bother?” Am I overthinking this? Does the possibility of AI taking over certain tasks in the future make you less motivated to start projects and learn new skills? Would love to hear others’ thoughts on this!
Somewhere out there there is someone better than you at what you do. There’s a company with more resources to do what you do. There are both that can do it quicker, more efficiently, and for cheaper. I say this not to make you feel worse, but hopefully better as all of this was true way before AI and its never stopped anyone before. Think of AI as a tool to extend yourself, not a replacement.
No. True AI is still a while away. What is getting traction are Large Language Models which I don’t classify as AI because the systems are not creating anything new, they are appropriating what already existed and saying it in another way.
they are appropriating what already existed and saying it in another way.
Isn’t this humanity in a nutshell? Standing on the shoulders of Giants, etc.
The machine doesn’t create anything of value on its own. It’s a power tool. You can automate aspects of creativity, but ultimately all art is the study of choice. What you choose to make, how and why, that is the more worthy aspect. If a movie has something predictable and cheap in the story, I don’t care how well it was acted or how fancy the effects were. It will still be a bad movie.
AI only makes it less effortful to generate creative output. Using AI or not is just another choice to evaluate as part of your creative work. What does that choice mean to you? Make that choice deliberately as part of your vision, and you will have done well.
I guess it depends on your motivation for said project.
Do you enjoy the process of working on the project? Do you use it to learn new things and improve the skills required for it? Or all you care about is the end project?
If it’s the last one I can see why you could get discouraged but if it’s the other two then not really.
If I work on something specific I do it because I want to create this thing using my skills, experience and ideas. I also try to do as much of it as I can on my own, without using other’s people assets etc. For me, the work I put in is an important of the process and each step towards completion makes me a little proud and happy that I can create something.
At the same time I’m a weirdo who tends to use less efficient methods if they aren’t as fun to use when working on personal projects. I don’t really care about using AI in the first place so that might skew my view a bit.
There’s also the fact that AI isn’t omnipotent. It makes mistakes just like us and I’d rather fix my own mistakes since this way I know what I did, how I did it and where to look when things go wrong.
Sorry for the word salad. Your post gave me a reason to spew some unfiltered thoughts about an issue I never really thought about.
A creative person does creative things because they want to create. If you feel like there is no point to being creative just because someone else could “do it better/cheaper/faster,” then I would recommend looking at the reason you want to create. AI “competition” is a non-factor for a person whose reason for being creative is “because I want/like to.”
In the end you will gain new knowledge from doing the project.
And you can try to use AI to speed up the project and see if that works for you, and gain a better insight on what are the current AI systems shortcomings are.
Why should i bother doing something “like this” if someone else has already done it? Because you will gain the experience to go to the next level.
Its never a waste of time but an improvement of yourself.
I quit my job to start the year and I’m currently doing a sabbatical year. I’m apathetic about the idea of eventually honing in on a specialty to learn when I re-enter the workforce because I’m unsure how sustainable the skills I learn will be in demand for.
The only thing I can think of is expanding my base level understanding of LLMs. My bet is that they will become the foundation with which future projects are launched in the same way that elementary school is the foundation for basic reading/writing/comprehension skills.
