Three years after the launch of Chat GPT, an inevitable question has emerged about whether AI prompts are damaging our thinking skills.
Recently, while exploring Palm Springs for the first time, I found myself reflecting on creativity and conformity in our modern world. Between immersing myself in California's vibrant art scene and discovering the thought-provoking works of activists like Barbara Kruger and Josh Klein, something sparked a moment of pause and reflection.
One morning at breakfast, I sat near a couple who were having a different kind of holiday experience to mine. ‘We're going to be very strategic,’ one declared. ‘First, we're going to do Prada, then Dior, then Armani.’ Their conversation made me pause and consider how deeply our society has embraced consumption as a form of worship.
In an age where Google can instantly direct us to the nearest luxury store and marketing messages infiltrate every moment of our lives, it's becoming increasingly challenging to think independently and nurture our creative spirits. It’s easy to fall into the thrall of consumption when we are not especially encouraged to think for ourselves, to have ideas outside the norm, or to be creative.
Even as I write this now, I'm reminded of this struggle for autonomy. My screen constantly suggests corrections, deciding for itself what constitutes an ‘error,’ interrupting my natural flow of thought.
While it's too early to fully grasp how these technological interventions will shape human consciousness, what I am reminded of is that there is another AI, a far more significant AI, the one humans possess independently and on their own, which is at risk of being marginalised by all this, and that is Artistic Initiative.
This human creativity follows what tech circles call the ‘broken leg phenomenon’ – those unexpected moments that defy algorithmic prediction. Just as AI struggles when routine is disrupted by the unexpected, it's precisely these unconventional, brave and original thoughts that make us uniquely human.
True, conventions help our world run smoothly. However, within the world of human endeavour, they’re no substitute for the creative artist who thinks outside the box or who presents thought-provoking ideas not seen before that cause us to stop, take note, and question for ourselves the well-worn roads of the routine.
History tells us the validity of conventions only lasts for so long, until someone with vision and imagination comes along and changes the way we see the world, whether that be a tech oligarch, or the person who lives next door to you and who has a different way of doing things.
Since the Industrial Revolution, we've increasingly treated difference as an inconvenience, preferring the predictability of the production line. Our education systems often reinforce this, rewarding conformity over creativity.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, difference has been seen increasingly as an inconvenience. Factories depend on the constant and unchanging nature of the production line.
And over the decades, humans have been inculcated to support that through the way our education systems operate, for example, by following the curriculum, with marks awarded for getting things right.
I believe that we are all creative beings at heart and in our souls. Our individuality not only matters, it’s crucial to the very essence of being a human being, as opposed to an artificially constructed identity.
So, if I want to write prose in a way that’s different to how Microsoft, Google or any other platform sees it, why shouldn’t I? It’s a human right, yet that right is being increasingly overridden.
I fear for the poets of the world, the artists of every shape and persuasion, for whom doing things differently is in their lifeblood. They make life a constant, mind-expanding, joy, full of possibilities beyond the ordinary.
And this is why I believe that Artistic Initiative couldn’t be more important to cultivate.
While Artificial Intelligence compresses common sense, Artistic Initiative expands it (though I remain hopeful that AI might someday help us address global challenges if we learn to value its emotional neutrality.)
If you are reading this, this is a call to nurture your own Artistic Initiative. Dare to step outside the tramlines of orthodoxy. Believe that your own unique perspective has merit, even if it’s a new thing to try and give expression.
Your Artistic Initiative will make you more of who you are, not less. Your Artistic Initiative will help you develop as an individual of increasing uniqueness and value as someone whose output cannot be automated.
Most importantly, your Artistic Initiative can free you from the endless cycle of consumption – the ‘shop till you drop’ mentality that marketing folks use to convince us that wearing today's labels somehow makes us more worthy.
Your creativity, your ingenuity, your unique voice, your Artistic Initiative – that’s what truly matters.