We’re living through the rise of AI. Images, videos, writing, code, we see it everywhere in the content world. But we also see its applications in healthcare, cybersecurity, finance, education, etc.
AI is transforming the world. With the improvement of AI disease detection models, cancer can be detected before symptoms appear. Large language models help simplify complicated concepts in education. And in the content world, AI can seamlessly generate entire books, films, and art with a simple prompt.
Yes, there are still doctors and physical teachers. AI becomes a supplement to the job. But for content creators, speaking practically, no manual work is required anymore. AI can fully automate the entire process of creating content and even scheduling for the month.
What does this mean for traditional creators (none to partial use of AI) in the content world when fully AI generated content swarms the playing field?
I’m not writing this essay in support of AI. Nor against it either. This essay is a short conceptualization of what content may look like in the future.
Let’s start at AI tools. Image generation models help visualize crazy ideas, such as how a hummingbird would react if it saw a man sneeze nectar flowers. We may have not come across that exact image yet, but what if we wanted to illustrate that?
In the past, it would take years of skill to paint a realistic representation of that idea. From 5 to 50, one would have to practice painting every single day for 1-2 hours, moving from stick figures to emoji expressions to the pores on a face. When the first step is too difficult, we would place a box in between the floor and the first step to create a smaller step. And when that step was too difficult, we would place another box in between the floor and the smaller step.
AI takes the years of practice out of the picture. With a simple prompt and some tweaking of the realism settings, we could generate a pretty accurate picture of what we visualized. It takes the last step and aligns it with the floor, so we don’t have to climb a staircase to get there.
We see content creators taking advantage of that, with almost entirely AI generated content. It levels the playing scale between artists that haven’t dabbled in art before and artists that have over 20 years of experience.
Undeniably however, the artist with the 20 years of experience has the best understanding of art, from technique to how the entire piece goes well together. The most visually appealing award goes to the artist that has the experience and intentionally exercised that experience in all components of the artwork.
So what if the experienced artist used AI tools as well?
AI tools are enablers for both the inexperienced AND the experienced. But because the experienced understands the process, AI can be used with precise intention and improve the aesthetic experience in ways the inexperienced couldn’t imagine. For example, a realism aspect of the hummingbird and the man sneezing flowers could be how the light falls on their heads. The experienced artist may prompt AI to generate a sun in the artwork’s corner and consider how it falls on the face, and select specific areas to correct/regenerate how the light falls. The inexperienced may forget this aspect entirely.
In the content world, everyone will use AI, but the ultimate leverage goes to the one that has mastered their craft and knows how to use it as a tool. AI isn’t meant to rid creativity, it’s supplemental to expressing it.
When everyone’s generating AI content, it may be all we see in the future. It will become indecipherable to the naked eye which artwork was entirely generated using AI and which wasn’t. But in the next wave of content, when the experienced begin using AI, the distinction of skill and understanding is what will make content stand out. The experienced still win.
Quality over quantity.