There seems to be a growing concern that artificial intelligence will replace creativity.
After spending a reasonable amount of time working alongside it, I have reached a different conclusion.
AI is remarkably good at producing options.
Thousands of them.
Before you've even finished your coffee.
What it doesn't produce is judgment.
That's still your job.
I've watched AI generate excellent ideas, terrible ideas and perfectly average ideas, often within the same conversation. It never appears emotionally attached to any of them.
Which, oddly enough, is one of its strengths.
It doesn't mind being edited.
People, on the other hand, sometimes do.
The real work begins after the answers arrive.
Choosing one.
Discarding twenty.
Changing a single word because it feels more honest.
Deleting an entire paragraph because it sounds clever but says very little.
That part cannot be automated.
Not because the technology isn't capable.
Because taste has always been a human decision.
If you've ever worked without a mentor, a trusted colleague or simply someone willing to offer an honest second opinion, AI can become an unexpectedly useful sounding board.
I've found that different tools have different personalities.
One is direct, measured and ruthlessly concise.
The other is more conversational, more willing to explore an idea before arriving at a conclusion.
Neither is right.
Neither is wrong.
They simply offer different perspectives.
Just as two experienced colleagues might.
The important part isn't agreeing with either of them.
It's deciding what stays and what goes.
They're tools, after all.
The judgment still belongs to you.
Anyone can generate a thousand slogans.
Choosing the one worth printing on a T-shirt is a different skill entirely.
The same applies to writing.
The first draft is rarely the difficult part.
Knowing when to stop is.
Perhaps that's why I'm not particularly worried about artificial intelligence.
The more content it produces, the more valuable good judgment becomes.
The scarcity was never ideas.
It was restraint.
AI IS BUT A TOOL.
GOOD TASTE IS STILL MANUAL.
Related Observation:
The quality was never in the first draft. It was always in the decisions that followed.