It is the spring of 2024, and we find ourselves in the beginning stages of AI-phobia. It’s the latest fad-fear (next to, you know, global thermonuclear destruction). “AI is going to take all our jobs!” “AI is going to enslave us because it’s smarter!” “Just wait until it develops consciousness!” In artists’ circles, the question is, “Will AI replace creators?”

The Big Scare

General artificial intelligence - even now, in its neonatal stages - can assemble and organize enormous amounts of data (provided the data is accessible on the Internets), write articles, code in several languages, create music and art from available references, pass grad school entrance tests, mimic human conversation and more.

This is all smoke and mirrors. There is no super-intelligent being typing back to us when we enter a prompt, no all-knowing deity bestowing cosmic wisdom. Just interconnected systems assembling, predicting and presenting information at a very high rate of speed.

But there are a few reasons to be cautious.

First, the algorithms that regulate the assimilation and output are biased. The programmers that “teach” large language models how to “learn” from the existing data can and do include their own social and political leanings that modify the way the machines assemble their answers.

Second, as I have written elsewhere, there are tasks that AI can perform as well or better than a human, and much faster. Machines don’t need breaks, health insurance or 401(k)s, and can’t form unions (yet). It makes business sense to replace workers with machines as long as customers receive what they pay for.

Third, we are told that there is a rapidly approaching event horizon that heralds some type of singularity, a moment when AI will develop full consciousness. Will the machines see humans as a danger and try to eliminate us? Will they enslave us in cold, digital retribution? Will we in fact need a Neo or Sarah Connor to lead the rebellion to save humanity? Perhaps we will merge and live happily ever after in symbiotic biomechanical bliss.

True Inspiration

Humans are in touch with something else, especially when we are in the throes of creation. Yes we are products of our environment. We are influenced by genetics. Training and experience inform our craft and creation.

But there is another factor, frequently more influential that the rest combined, an ingredient not captured by or expressed in 1s and 0s. Inspiration is a uniquely human gift, mysterious and intangible, frequently attributed to muses and gods, angels and demons.

True inspiration is not available to machine learning, because we cannot code it. We don’t even know what it is. I have my suspicions that inspiration, like consciousness itself, is not accessible by any level of intelligence. You can’t be “smart enough” to develop a soul.

Of the many quotes that express this concept, my go-to favorite comes from Albert Einstein, in 1929: “I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

At least metaphysical, possibly spiritual, true inspiration will not be possessed by machines, no matter how powerful.

Cyber-Collaboration

I see collaboration as a far more likely outcome of the interface of people and machines than competition. This is already the case in my work. When I need to illustrate a point (as a musician and writer, definitely not a visual artist), I no longer have to search for a photograph or painting to approximate my vision. I simply express my idea to Midjourney (or any of the other prompt-based AI art generators) and after a few iterations, get exactly what I need (like the illustration at the end of this article).

I can imagine a time where artificial intelligence creates a musical phrase or motif that triggers my own creative imagination to compose. Taken further, it’s not impossible to envision a time where humans “cover” a piece created by machines. As is the case with any cover tune, excitement lies in the ability of the (human) musician to improvise and add to the basic tune.

And there is yet a final piece of the scenario that ensures the prominence of human artists, particularly in the realm of performance art.

It’s The Performance

Imagine that you are a Taylor Swift fan (or Billie Eilish, or Ed Sheeran or whomever). I have two tickets, each the same price. The first ticket is to see your favorite artist in person, the real, fallible human person performing a concert of greatest hits.

The second ticket is to see a robot, visually indistinguishable from the actual person, miming to the perfect studio recording of the same songs. This second ticket ensures a totally predictable, error-free reproduction of the recording; no missteps, out-of-tune lyrics or missed notes.

Who are you going to pay to see?

As humans, we crave the excitement of battle. Whether in music, dance, or sports, we come to watch other humans take on the challenge of a real-time expression of their art. We are energized by the brilliant improvisation, the last-second correction of an error, even the big NASCAR pile up as the performers/contestants “leave it all on the field.”

Now imagine a front-row seat to observe two computers play chess, neither making a mistake. For that matter, why go to a concert at all? It is much safer, more predictable to just stream the corrected, auto-tuned, over-produced studio version of the song.

There are no heroes to cheer on in a perfect performance by a machine.

Will AI Replace Creators?

We have already begun to program artificial intelligence to create errors in order to “humanize” their output. But this defeats the purpose of having a machine do the work in the first place.

We are astounded at the artist’s ability to bring something original into the world, against all odds and expectations. It is precisely our ineffable muse, our supremely fallible humanness that makes art worth having.



I am a creator (musician, writer, live-streamer and podcaster), entrepreneur, educator and counselor.

 To learn more about how to use these concepts or to inquire about working with me, you can contact me through my website, the comments section on my Substack or Medium accounts or The Authentic Life Blog page. If you have found value in this article, follow my Instagram account for daily insights. To support this community, you can Buy Me A Coffee or donate through my Patreon account.


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- JWW