One of the most talked about impacts of AI that I have been reading about, is on the creative side. That is, the ability of AI to produce creative work and replace humans in that area, e.g. marketers, copywriters, designers, artists, musicians, etc. I write about creativity a lot being of the type, or so I think. I would hate for AI to replace my unique, creative capabilities or anyone else’s. I think it’s what gives us our edge, our points of difference, notwithstanding AI’s role. But I’m an optimist too, so I don’t believe that will be the case.

I’ve captured a timeline of our evolution with regards to our cognitive and intellectual capabilities which I think are essential for creative thought. Beyond this are a few points to elaborate on my thinking, a theory ultimately.

We don’t fully know the reasons behind what is termed a Symbolic Explosion, where Homo Sapiens started thinking in symbols, representing a creative explosion. The phenomenon is well explained here: Symbolic Thought in Humans: A Creative Explosion | AMNH.

I’m not so interested in the reasons although I would love to know.

I am more interested in the fact it happened at all and how it points to a source of human advantage that we have held for years. This will be part of a focus area in a new trend report I’m writing: Future of HumAIn Work

The question is how do we progress in the face of powerful AI which is becoming more powerful, exponentially.

I don’t have the answer for that but believe it lies in the area of cooperation. Cooperation is exactly how many companies are positioning their AI offerings. Microsoft is calling theirs CoPilot, Google is calling theirs Duet, etc. You get the picture.

AI won’t replace writers, but writers who use AI will replace writers who don’t.

Paul Roetzer, CEO of Marketing AI Institute

This quote really sums it up quite nicely, in terms of a way forward. So it’s an embrace it or die proposition.

Yet extinction for humanity is the bleak end of possible outcomes. It’s being talked about a lot. Considering we gave birth to AI, I don’t believe that will happen. I think either in cooperation or either because we will have another explosion of accelerated consciousness and cognitive ability and intellectual capacity, we might even eclipse AI.

Certainly I believe that it will be in our ongoing capacity for creative thought, in every single field, that we will not only survive but thrive – with AI or without.