Humans have been creating content since the beginning of time. From cave paintings in the Paleolithic era to the incredible inventions of the Renaissance, silent films of the 1920s to recent wonders in animation, creative production is rooted in humankind. Yet, recent years have signified an incredible change in this field: artificial intelligence, or AI.
No longer are humans forced to produce material through their own hard work but can now alter and even produce new creations by the click of a button. While at this point AI presents itself as a tool, there is a deeper dependency being developed behind the scenes. Each email people ask AI to write and each image they suggest it to create proves its ease.
With more ease, comes more reasons to depend on AI. Why draw your own image when AI could create it in seconds? Why edit your own content when AI could do it for you while you worry about other issues? Why write your own ads when you can train AI to produce something both funny and convincing? Why create your own films when AI has that ability?
Do you see the progression? One prompt leads to another, and in no time we are mindlessly letting a robot create media for us, while we sit back and consume its slop. Don't believe us? Ever see the movie “Wall-E”?
In all reality though, “Wall-E” is just a movie. However, real steps are being made towards the death of man-made creative production. Take for example, the controversy surrounding the 2024 film, “The Brutalist”. In this movie, an AI tool, Respeecher, was utilized to enhance the Hungarian accents of the movie's leads, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones.
Alone, this may not be considered an incredible problem. However, the movie's editor, Dávid Jancsó, revealed the AI usage in January 2025 and in March, Brody won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. While Brody obviously put on a noteworthy performance, it is greatly questionable whether alterations to his performance through AI should hinder his ability to win said title.
Some may argue that the controversy which resulted both from the AI usage and from Brody's win is enough cultural conversation and negative backlash to prevent further usage, however in an interview with CNN Entertainment, senior lecturer in digital film and TV production at London Metropolitan University, Louis Heaton, claimed AI usage in production will become regular, especially for smaller tasks. But, don't forget the progression we discussed: small tasks turn into large ones.
In more recent news, this month, at the Cannes Lions, Meta announced new AI technology to supply further access to AI-enabled ad creation. In case you aren't aware, Cannes Lions is the International Festival of Creativity. Seems pretty ironic right?
Furthermore, beyond being ironic, this is arguably very telling of our progression into AI dependency. At an international festival which celebrates excellence in advertising, marketing and creative communications, one of the world's most competitive AI brands launches new technology that can help generate ads for you. I hope you can see the problem in this.
AI progression into our society's creative productions isn't only a large issue which appears in news headlines; it's in our everyday life. Videos and posts across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms are littered with AI content. Assignments by high school and college students become increasingly edited or completely created by AI platforms such as ChatGPT. Even some products at stores seem to use images created by AI.
So what's the problem, (other than society's progression in creative oblivion)? As AI content leaches into our daily lives, overtaking human content, creations lack something: humanity. AI content has no passion, because it can't. AI content is produced in minutes, by a machine with no emotions, no struggles and no knowledge of the human experience. Even when AI content advances and becomes nearly indistinguishable from human content, there will always be a lack of the human touch.
If this doesn't convince you enough, imagine the “Mona Lisa” without her perfected slight smile and twinkle in her eye. Imagine the “Starry Night” without the movement of each visible brushstroke. Imagine Michelangelo's “Pieta” without each fold and crease of her clothing.
One day, art museums will be filled with works from our lifetime. It would be an incredible shame if these museums no longer contained artwork that emulated the sweat and tears of humans, but rather the blankness of the robotic touch.
AI's takeover of the creative industry isn't inevitable if people work to aid human creation though. This can look like refusing to use AI for creative production, as well as monitoring the content you consume, and supporting creative brands and businesses which only use man-made content.
Humans have created the world around us including paintings, statues, architecture, animation, television, films, advertisements, podcasts, radio, photography, illustrations and more. Why let AI take over what we have been doing for millennia?
