AI Changed Close to Nothing Except the Price Tag
Yesterday, I talked with my daughter, who shared that her interns from professional school are limited in their use of AI tools. Then, I came across @Anna Rogoz 's question today, which made me think, the question was in the opposite direction: What tool can do the job for me? My thoughts on these two cases are summed up by a simple idea: AI has barely changed the creative world. In the pre-AI era, if you didn't have painting skills, could you create the painting you imagined? Of course you could! You only needed to be able to describe your vision in great detail in English or another human language to an artist. What if you want to write a book but don't have any writing, design, or marketing skills? Of course you can do it! You only need to collect a team of ghostwriters, editors, designers, and marketers, and explain your vision in great detail. Before AI, your ability to produce creative products was limited by your ability to communicate your vision in a way that others could make tangible. And yes, you also needed a boat load of money. AI has changed that. Instead of a lot of money, you only need $20 for Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude – whichever tool you prefer. If you can't communicate your ideas, no AI can help you, and you couldn't be helped in the pre-AI days either. So, all this AI hype is based on the idea that only wealthy, unskilled people could produce poor quality work few years ago. Nowadays, anyone with $20 can do it. What do you think about it in the context of the AI discussion in your community, @Robert Alan ?