A year ago, I heard many of my writer friends complaining about AI. It was going to take over the world. AI-generated writing would replace authors by copying their prose and churning out new novels. AI-generated images would illegally steal all the online art, producing new pieces people could use for free—circumventing the need to pay artists and illustrators.
I didn’t form an opinion at the time. As I’ve written in another post, every time a technological shift occurs in the art world (think: the invention of the camera), artists panic that they’ll be outsourced, underutilized, or forgotten entirely. Hearing the same arguments about AI as a tool for writing and art felt like déjà vu.
Since then, I’ve experimented with AI-generated images and writing. And I can confidently say: AI is nowhere near replacing real human creators.
Until the day comes when AI can understand metaphors—not just apply comparative analytics from vast data sets but truly grasp their meaning—it will never match human creativity.
Humans think in metaphors. Our brains are wired to compare and evaluate constantly: Is this black or white, or something in between? Is it hot or cold? What shape does it resemble? Every observation we make filters through our personal experiences.
This lens of personal experience is what makes every artist unique. I will never fully understand how you see the color magenta, for example, because your experiences have shaped your perception of that color differently than mine. That uniqueness is the foundation of great art—whether written, performed, or illustrated.
That said, AI has improved over the past year. With precise prompts, I can get decent images, though they still require adjustments. And consistency remains an issue—the same prompt will produce different images if run twice. But AI struggles to generate anything metaphorical with real depth.
The same applies to writing. I can describe a setting, a character, and a plot, but AI won’t write in my style unless I train it extensively. Even then, it “hallucinates,” making characters behave in ways I didn’t suggest or altering their speech patterns. AI is also constrained by memory. I can’t feed it an entire book I wrote and expect it to mimic my evolving style.
So, is AI going to replace creators? No.
Is it a good tool for creators? Yes. That’s a topic for another post, but in short, AI excels at simplifying, outlining, collaborative brainstorming, and suggesting image compositions. What it can’t do is rely on a unique perspective to compare experience to a projected outcome. And that’s where human creativity will always reign.
