Generative AI and the Future of Human Creativity

When new technology makes some previously difficult things easy, people who are highly skilled in those previously difficult things will inevitably feel that their livelihood, and perhaps even their sense of identity, is being taken away from them.

On the other hand, as some of the previously difficult things become easier, some other — previously impossible — things become possible. What kind of people might be in the best position to start doing the previously impossible things? To start discovering which of the newly possible things are truly worthwhile? Arguably, it's precisely those individuals whose advanced or unique skills, which used to be highly valued, are now becoming obsolete, and who now feel that their livelihoods and vocations are threatened.

The invention of photography in the 19th century disrupted the practical usefulness of realistic painting. Portraits and other images that people would typically want to capture for posterity could now be captured so much more easily. But since the utilitarian demand for realistic painting diminished, in the decades after photography became widespread, completely new and unexpected artistic movements emerged - Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and many others - which more often than not had no use for the skills that would have been indispensable to their predecessors. These new movements, rather than honing the craftsmanship that used to be at the heart of visual arts in earlier eras, instead went on to utterly redefine what Art is all about.

Generative AI, while still in its early years, seems poised to affect not just painting, and not even just visual arts, but quite possibly all other modes of artistic expression as well. In what new directions will human creativity progress, now that so many previously difficult aspects of the craft of creative expression are suddenly so much easier with this new technology?