AI in the Creative Industries
Gomez and Fester ponder the role of AI in the entertainment business. Gomez is quite angry really.
I know what you’re thinking. How can I sit back and watch these, these… these ingrates take my family, CGI-ify it, slap some AI lipstick on it and then pretend it is in any way original. In. Any. Way.
Gomez says this: he is easy with it, easy like Sunday night
To compare these feckless morons with my family is to compare one of the world’s greatest wheels of fine cheese with a Kraft single. Even the FDA, which permits chicken carcasses to be hosed down with toxic chemicals and call that food, does not classify Kraft singles as cheese.
As a semi-professional writer, a man of the night, an insomniac and someone who reads constantly - over a hundred books a year - I see AI as unequivocal progress. Nobody will ever confuse that mob with my family.
AI turbo charges my research for nonfiction writing. And for fiction writing too. It helps in other ways by reducing the admin overhead of life to leave more time for writing. [I always said this guy was one axe from homicide. Fester.]
One thing AI will never do is write a single word of copy for me. Never will anyone use AI to create anything here on this newsletter or anywhere else with my name on it. There is no contradiction here. Nothing to fear.
Many bleeding hearts online are predicting the end of the world as we know it over AI. Pay these folk no heed. They are parroting nonsense based on close to zero knowledge of what AI is, what it can do or where it is going. Anything that can do Wednesday’s homework for her is GOOD. I’ve been trying for years and never got anywhere with her. Homework is just busy work anyway. They don’t even teach axe sharpening.
One of the recent observations that provoked me was this: that AI is making it harder for people to become writers. First of all that is rubbish. Becoming a writer, an actual paid writer, is one of the hardest things anyone can do. And even if it is true, how is this a bad thing?
The amount of inane drivel written by people who think they can write is astounding to me. On KDP, on Kindle, on LinkedIn. On X, on Facebook. It’s everywhere. Bland drivel. Mindless doom scroll. This stuff is beneath every single one of you. Do not subscribe.
The whole point and attraction of writing is that it is hard. If you don’t read at least 50 books a year you cannot be a writer. If you don’t write for an hour or two every day, seven days a week, for year after year, on your own, in a dark room, you cannot be a writer. George Orwell did not sit around on the ‘gram all day. This is not easy. That it looks easy just shows how hard the writer is working.
These axioms can be applied to any creative field. Fashion. Look at people like Nafisa Tosh. Decades of hard yards. Working until 2am on a weekend. You can hear her deep wisdom on AI here. If anything is easy it is probably not worth doing. Acting. Painting. Ceramics. Do you think any of this is easy? Good luck getting AI to paint a saleable work or do any of those other things. Or even throw an axe. Jog on.
I cannot be more clear. The creative industries can only benefit from AI. The low end, the easy-to-enter drivel end of the spectrum will be annihilated. Bon voyage! Eugene! Careful with that axe!
Fester Explains
Once again, I find myself cast as Uncle Fester, and once again, I choose to believe it’s because of my caring nature rather than any unfortunate resemblance to a bald man who can conduct electricity. [We heard you last time. Press on. Gomez.]
This is my last week as Fester before I get my blonde hair back, or indeed any hair at all. But if AI is shocking the creative world, maybe being a little Fester-like isn’t such a bad thing.
This week, Gomez—a writer by nature and by choice—has taken his stance on AI in the creative industries. Much like how he writes passionate, dramatic love letters to Morticia, he believes that true creativity should never be outsourced to a machine. AI, it will merely produce drivel, he argues, might be useful for some industries, but when it comes to creative work, it’s nothing more than a pale imitation. Everyone knows when an image has been AI-generated, just as true readers can tell when something lacks soul. [Yes, you’re dead right. Many of my dead friends lack soul. Having AI write is like having a dead zombie write something. Gomez.]
And while I respect Gomez’s deep, poetic convictions, I disagree.
If you ask ChatGPT or any LLM to write something with no direction, no structure, and no persona—yes, you’ll probably get drivel. But if you prompt it correctly, give it a clear voice, and guide it with purpose, the result isn’t just machine-generated text—it’s still your excellence, just much faster. [Or much Fester. HAHA! Gomez.]
So, that raises the real question: am I a cheat, or am I simply working smart instead of hard? Maybe Uncle Fester isn’t so dim after all.
Did I use an LLM to write this? Or did I not? Or maybe—just maybe—I used an LLM for every single one of these newsletters, and you never even noticed. [If this is true you will be looking for a new head. Fetch my axe just in case. Gomez.]
One possibility proves Gomez right—AI will never replace true creative skill. The other possibility proves me right—AI can enhance creativity without replacing it. Hopefully, you just can’t tell. 😉