I want AI to wash the dishes so I can make art, not make art so I can wash the dishes.

There’s a fairly consistent narrative around AI and machine learning on LinkedIn — especially where creative people are concerned. Fear, paranoia, anger, jealousy. As the latest in a long line of technological advancements threatens to steal from the plates of those employed in the creative industries.

Like the Apple Macintosh, the internet, social media et al. before it, shortcuts open up and are gainfully taken by budget-strapped business owners and marketers — rendering nice, chunky agency retainer fees vulnerable to the bean counter’s red pen.

And creative people — especially freelancers — feel the pain as business models are reimagined and belts are tightened. I do think the dust will settle, though. AI tools and practices will find their place, and some sort of order will be re-established. But, as before, the equation remains:

The same workload
+ tech advances
= less workforce required.

Personally, I don’t feel I can complain too much. As one of the original cohort of Mac users, the skill I nurtured via those beige boxes from Cupertino gave me an advantage that became more and more valuable as creative and production processes became increasingly digital. And that shift in itself did away with a whole raft of analogue manpower and computer refuseniks.

But as a creative person, how should you feel about Midjourney, ChatGPT, Adobe Photoshop’s Generative Fill and all the rest? Should you hate and avoid them? Should you champion a ‘handmade’ approach and wear it like a badge of honour?

Well, as that same creative person, if you aren’t using AI tools to try and propel your output to even greater heights, then you are at a distinct disadvantage.

@AuthorJMac on X sums it up pretty well, I think, with this erudite 'tweet'.

The blank sheet of paper is a scary place, and these tools get marks on that paper real fast. Even if all those ‘marks’ eventually get rubbed out, you’re much further down the road to a solution — much faster than you’ve ever been.

Desk research? You can now be in possession of multiple different versions of ‘the facts’ faster and more conveniently than ever before. Who wouldn’t relish that — creative or otherwise?

Of course, you need to arbitrate how much of the workload these tools take on. They will gleefully spew forth ‘creative work’ of every flavour. And, yes, there are certain types who will accept this output verbatim and just roll it out. We’ve all seen that stuff — especially in advertising and on social channels. Gives me the creeps.

But creatives are suffering as a result right now — because fewer people can now do much more, in far less time. All that ‘crap’ that interns and juniors used to do? You can bet your life that AI is gobbling up the vast majority of that low-level grunt work in agencies and studios everywhere.

The idea still rules. I can’t see a time when it won’t. But many clients don’t want to be pushed. Taking the ‘surly creative’ out of the argument is convenient for some — especially when so much of mainstream marketing is becoming less like storytelling and more like brainwashing.

The good will out.

But suck it up.

We all just have to endure a whole load of meh in the meantime.