A Response To Those Who Believe AI Can’t Be Used For Creativity
AI is no more capable of creating art than a tube of paint, a brush, a lump of clay, or a digital canvas. Like a shovel won’t dig a ditch for you or a pen won’t understand your thoughts, AI is a tool guided by human intent. The value of what it makes depends entirely on the mind behind it, whether wielding a charred stick or a neural network humming with code. Art has always evolved with technology, from cave walls to computer screens. Every advance has expanded what we can create, not diminished it.
Yet, each time a new tool like AI emerges, a wave of fear and fury ripples through the world, stifling clear-headed discussion. Hollywood’s grim stories of rogue machines don’t help, planting seeds of doubt that technology itself is the enemy. But if things go wrong, it’s not AI acting alone; it’s us, dodging accountability out of fear, letting the ship run aground. When we take responsibility, we decide where AI fits, where it’s not needed, and where it can handle the grunt work so we can focus on what we want to shape with our own hearts and hands.
“AI is no more capable of creating art than a tube of paint…”
The loudest critics often mask their unease as principle, tossing out vague rules about what makes art real or calling new tools lazy cheats. These arguments bend to fit personal comfort zones, ignoring a culture that thrives on memes, remixes, fan art, and viral edits, many of which sidestep intellectual property without a blink. Plenty of artists borrow styles like anime, Tumblr’s raw edges, or Disney’s glossy charm, yet balk when AI enters the conversation. Odder still, some pin their hopes on old characters hitting the public domain, believing a return to familiar stories will somehow restore quality to art and culture. They’d rather freeze progress than risk the unknown. But art doesn’t grow by clinging to the past; it blooms when we blend the valuable lessons we can learn from it with what is possible with fresh, young minds using what is unfamiliar for those who have come before.
