I recently got into an argument with a comedian. And if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, trust me, it’s not worth it.
I was speaking to a group of content creators about using AI to offload some of the more labor-intensive and costly aspects of their creative processes. The crux of the conversation was how to use AI to make it easier for their voices to be heard, how the barrier to entry has become democratized. It was intended to be an uplifting talk about how you no longer need a massive budget to bring what is in your head into the world.
Generally, the group was very receptive to the conversation, but the comedian, not so much. He used his talent of turning a phrase to try and turn the room. His resistance was understandable. He was experiencing that same existential crisis many of us experience the first time we encounter AI – where do I fit into this new world? Am I going to lose my job? Is there a place for my creativity?
The Heart of Creativity
And that’s a big question. In this new reality where AI is encroaching on things that not long ago were the sole domain of humans, is there still a place for our creativity? Afterall, there is nothing more core to the human experience than our desire to be creative. But rest assured, AI is still far away, maybe a forever away, from taking that from us.
AI is a craftsman, skilled at observing and mimicking what creators do. But AI is not a creator, at least not in the way humans are. We bring something unique to the creative process: taste. That sense of knowing when a piece is complete, when to add one final brush stroke, or when to delete that last sentence. It’s this quality, born from our lived experiences, emotions, and struggles that AI cannot replicate.
Understanding AI’s Role
This quality of taste, knowing how and why to make creative choices, is at the heart of what separates human creativity from artificial intelligence. When people ask me what AI can do, I’m more interested in turning that question on its head and asking them, “What do you want it to do?” Because that’s the key difference. AI doesn’t want anything. It doesn’t have desires, dreams, or drive. It has patterns, probabilities, and processing power.
Think about the last time you created something. Maybe it was a presentation at work, a birthday card for your kid, or even just a really good social media post. What drove you to make it? There was probably a spark, a moment where you thought “wouldn’t it be cool if…” or “this needs to exist.” That spark is what AI can’t replicate. It can help you build the fire, but it can’t strike the match.
This is where taste comes in. Taste isn’t just about knowing good from bad; it’s about having a vision and knowing how to get there. It’s about making choices that serve a purpose. When a chef adds just a pinch more salt, when a writer cuts their favorite paragraph, when a designer chooses one font over another, these are more than just technical decisions. They’re choices guided by an internal compass pointing toward something specific.
AI can analyze millions of recipes and tell you that salt enhances flavor. It can study countless books and tell you that shorter paragraphs improve readability. It can process every font ever created and tell you which ones are traditionally used in luxury branding. But it can’t tell you what your restaurant needs to stand out in your neighborhood. It can’t know which paragraph, though beautifully written, distracts from your story’s emotional core. It can’t understand why that slightly quirky font perfectly captures your brand’s personality.
Because here’s the truth about creativity; it’s not about making something perfect. It’s about making something meaningful. Every creative choice serves a specific vision, and you can’t serve a vision you don’t have.
The Evolution of Creative Tools
The fear of obsolescence isn’t new. The comedian’s reaction echoes through history, from painters who feared photography would make their craft irrelevant, to musicians who worried recording technology would eliminate live performances. In 1840 after seeing his first photograph, French painter Paul Delaroche declared, “From today, painting is dead.” A widely circulated magazine of the time Brush and Pencil, lamented, “photography would in time entirely supersede the art of painting.” The real angst that was felt at the time has been mostly lost to history, but in the moment, those fears were very real. Yet each time, these technologies didn’t replace art; they became new tools for making it.
But AI feels different, more personal. When a machine can generate a decent poem or sketch a portrait in seconds, it strikes at something deeper than our professional pride. It challenges our fundamental belief that creativity makes us special. That’s why the existential crisis hits so hard. It’s not just about losing our jobs; it’s about losing our place in the story of human expression.
Cave paintings weren’t just art, they were declarations of existence. “I was here. I saw this. I felt this. I mattered.” That’s the real fear AI stirs in us, if a machine can make something that looks like art, how can I leave my mark?
But here’s what we’re missing, those cave painters didn’t create art because they were the only ones who could. They created it because they had to, because making things is how we process being alive. The tools have evolved from charcoal and cave walls to styluses and screens, but the underlying drive remains unchanged. AI isn’t here to replace that drive. It’s just the newest tool in humanity’s creative toolbox.
A Farm and a Field
I have a farm, or at least what a kid who grew up in a city thinks of a farm – 31 acres of pastures and groves. Yes, a real farmer might call it a ‘farmette’ or a fun little hobby, but for us, it’s an enormous amount of land. And up until we purchased it, cattle had roamed the acreage for over 100 years, plodding through the fields in the rain, leaving hoof shaped depressions across the entire pasture. That makes for an incredibly bumpy mow. And a bumpy mow means a slow mow: twelve hours to get the grass knocked down kind of slow.
Now, what we should do is get some dirt and a box blade out there to smooth out the whole field. That would cut the mowing time down substantially, likely 25-30% faster. And those are the types of gains you can also expect using AI. AI can be your dirt and box blade. It smooths out the bumps of content creation.
AI (such as ChatGPT and Claude) helps with research, structures content, writes rough drafts, and provides feedback on what you’ve created. When used effectively, it amplifies your creative vision. It refines your ideas. AI allows you to focus on that core creative task, taste. But AI doesn’t know when to stop. It doesn’t know when enough is enough. It will endlessly continue to smooth the field. You have to know when it is smooth enough, when one more paint stroke or another sentence turns something elegant into something distasteful. That ability to recognize the perfect moment of completion, that’s the human element AI can’t replicate.
The Path Forward to Approaching AI with Taste
Think of how photographers work with RAW files. The unprocessed image isn’t the final product; it’s the starting point. The artist’s vision emerges in the editing: which details to enhance, what mood to create, how to guide the viewer’s eye. That’s how we should approach AI.
When you’re writing, AI can organize research, suggest different angles, and generate rough drafts. But that’s all they are, rough drafts. The real work begins when you shape that material to match your vision. You might only keep 10% of what AI generates, or you might use it to test different approaches before finding the one that feels right. The key is maintaining control of your creative direction.
AI isn’t about replacing creativity. It’s about eliminating friction. When researching a topic, AI can quickly summarize key points from multiple sources. When you’re stuck on structure, it can suggest different ways to organize thoughts. These tasks used to eat up hours of creative time. Now creators can focus more on what matters: crafting the message, fine-tuning the tone, and making sure every word serves a purpose.
AI is basically an efficient research assistant who never gets tired. They’ll gather all the materials you need, but they won’t write your story for you. They can’t, because they don’t know your vision. Only you do.
The future of creativity isn’t about AI replacing human vision. It’s about smoothing the path to reaching it. Remember that bumpy farm field? Once it’s leveled, you’re not just mowing faster; you’re mowing better. You can focus on the perfect cut height, on following the contours of the land, on creating those satisfying straight lines that turn your field into a park.
That’s what AI offers creative people. When technical friction falls away, your creativity doesn’t diminish. It flourishes. You can focus on refining your voice, perfecting your message, adding those subtle touches that turn good work into great work.
Because here’s what the comedian missed, AI isn’t here to tell your jokes, write your songs, or paint your paintings. It’s here to help you tell more jokes, write more songs, and paint more paintings. The human drive to create, that spark that made us draw on cave walls and tell stories around fires, isn’t going anywhere. We’re just finding better tools to help us leave our mark.
No matter how smooth technology makes the field, only you can tell your story.
If you’re ready to apply AI to your creative process but don’t know where to start, we can help. Reach out to Doyon Technology Group today at connect@doyontechgroup.com to speak with our AI expert.
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About the Author
Greg Starling serves as the Head of Emerging Technology for Doyon Technology Group. He has been a thought leader for the past twenty years, focusing on technology trends, and has contributed to published articles in Forbes, Wired, Inc., Mashable, and Entrepreneur magazines. He holds multiple patents and has been twice named as Innovator of the Year by the Journal Record. Greg also runs one of the largest AI information communities worldwide.
Doyon Technology Group (DTG), a subsidiary of Doyon, Limited, was established in 2023 in Anchorage, Alaska to manage the Doyon portfolio of technology companies: Arctic Information Technology (Arctic IT®), Arctic IT Government Solutions, and designDATA. DTG companies offer a variety of technology services including managed services, cybersecurity, and professional software implementations and support for cloud business applications.