It’s no secret that new forms of AI threaten the integrity of the arts and entertainment industry. Actors might be deep faked. Artists’ original work can be scraped by word prompts, and writers could be “replaced” by large language models that only seem to be getting more adept at copycatting human language.

One of the reasons it’s tempting for Hollywood producers to use AI seems to go beyond simply cutting costs. It makes sense massive companies want to capitalize on a tool that will get them unpaid labor. But in a way, entertainment, including books and movies, have become apportioned to popular demand. Which means they tend to be more formulaic and geared towards marketability instead of genuine quality. I wrote about this issue here regarding the new Coldplay single. I sincerely doubt AI could copy the song “Warning Sign” from the band’s iconic 2002 album A Rush of Blood to the Head. That whole album is too raw, interesting, and in depth to fake with a computer code. The new single, however, takes a basic beat, chord progression, and simplified lyrics, and just doesn’t have the “flavor” that once made the band stand out. It’s not just that AI is getting better at imitating human-made work, but that we humans are tilling soil that’s easy for the bots to plant weeds in. The more the arts and entertainment world obsesses over formula and “what sells,” the easier it may be for AI to do what we’re so afraid of it doing: replacing us.

It’s incumbent on us to make sure that AI stays in its lane and isn’t used to steal the spotlight from human creators. But it’s also incumbent on human creators to make sure what they make is really good, and less susceptible to getting co-opted by the machine.

The copyright cases abound, from artists to literary writers, since AI doesn’t generate ex-nihilo. It borrows from pre-existing material, making its imitations seductive. The primary fault here is with AI, not artists and writers. But we’ve had auto-tune for a long time, now. We’ve created formulaic books and stories, creating predictability and sameness across the cultural landscape. That makes it easier for AI to make its subtle inroads.

This cultural moment represents an opportunity for today’s creatives to champion the uniqueness of their contributions and continue to get after their craft with excellence. I have a feeling that the more we’re inundated with fakeness on the internet, the more we’ll appreciate real, human-made work.