I’M STILL CONVINCED that humans can write better than A.I. can.
We’re still more compelling, quirky and interesting.
That mysterious thing we do when we express our elemental creativity is surely a gift to the world. A continual reminder of what it means to be uniquely human.
COULD YOU IMAGINE Martin Luther King Jr. running his “I Have A Dream” speech though A.I. before delivering it to the masses?
“Hey Chat, make this speech sound more polished. Give me another draft—make it flow a little better. Can you make the words more gripping and compelling?”
I can’t either.
My daughter recently had to memorize the first half of this speech for a class presentation. As she practiced over and over before me, I was arrested again by the POWER of those words. The vivid scenes that exploded in my imagination, the sheer poetry of it all—I was floored by the fact that somebody wrote that.* Afterwards, I sat in stunned silence to let the ideas and words written 63 years ago penetrate.
*credit must be given to MLK’s friends, draft writers and helpers Clarence B. Jones, Stanley Levison, and Mahalia Jackson
COULD YOU IMAGINE Lord Byron doing an A.I collab with his “There is a Pleasure in the Pathless Woods” poem?
“Hey Chat, can you please refine these 9 lines? Yeah, sculpt ‘er up bit more. Something’s missing. And can you make it sound a bit more…nature-y poetic?”
I can’t either.
COULD YOU IMAGINE Lennon & McCartney funneling their creative ideas through the Suno A.I. Music Generator whilst working on Strawberry Fields Forever? Ha.
“Hey Suno, can you assist with making the lyrics more…trippy? Can you make the mellotron flute sounds more…weird? Say, let’s enhance the Indian swarmandal.” (The fact that this songwriting duo could write that many earth-shatteringly great (dare I say perfect) songs in that short a timespan will be studied for the next 500 years.)
I can’t either.
I’m not anti-A.I.
Like Lord Byron states, “I love not man the less, but Nature more.”
I love not A.I. the less, but Humans more.
I’m not anti-A.I.
I’m just pro-Human. We’re more interesting and surprising.
I’m pro human creativity and human flourishing.
I’m DEFINITELY pro inspiration.
I’ve written 5 books over the course of 13 years. And I’m an OK writer. One book took me 5 years to finish. I struggled and wrestled with it over and over. I didn’t think it was going to come to fruition. I almost gave up on it several times.
I still remember early one morning in my backyard, during my daily writing time, when something finally unlocked within me. At a spot where I was particularly stuck, the words suddenly spilled out of me. I could barely capture them fast enough for the page. The floodgates were open. Inspiration had reached me once again. I knew it would come. The book was coming alive once more. I was making progress!
This is the type of joyous experience that a prompt simply cannot do for you.
MY fingerprints are all over my books.
To the creative souls who came before me—the hungry artists, the outliers, the outcasts, the misfits, the pioneers, the poets who made us weep when they held a lantern to our interior world, the defiant ones who wrote a punk rock song that kicked our collective ass, the unconventional ones, the believers in beauty, the downright rebels, those ridiculous dreamers…
I salute you.
I SALUTE YOU.
May we continue the tradition.
Your timeless works will continue to remind us of what beauty is for. (Thinking of van Gogh)
Your famous words will echo on forever (thinking of MLK)
Your example of reaching greatness will continue to astound and inspire future generations (thinking of any human who WENT FOR IT, and showed us all how it could be done)
I’ll carry the flame of human creativity.
To the conflicted artist…don’t outsource your beautiful brain. At least not all of it. Nor your heart, your blood, your sweat, your tears, your very fingerprint. The toil to reach beauty is worth it!
Don’t sell your God-given birthright to CREATE.
To the conflicted artist…don’t shortcut the CREATIVE PROCESS. It’s here where the magic, the mystery, and the infinite discovery happens! The gift, the joy, is in the process. (Not in some spinning blank image waiting to render in seconds.)
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
These thoughts came to me today on my morning run.
Be inspired.
