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AI is replacing artists, and here's how
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we beat it. Let's be clear, this isn't
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science fiction. AI is already flooding
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the world with songs, scripts,
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paintings, poetry, and most people don't
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even care where it came from because
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it's fast. It's endless. It's free. But
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there's one thing it's not. It's not
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human. It doesn't remember what your
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hometown smelled like. It doesn't
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grieve. It doesn't fall in love. It
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doesn't spiral into obsession over one
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perfect note. But as artists and
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musicians, we do. And that may be our
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weapon. This isn't a doomscroll video.
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This is a battle plan for artists to
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survive, win, create in a world that's
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forgetting what meaning sounds like.
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Let's go. Chapter one. Lean into your
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humanity. We're entering an era of
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infinite content. Music, images,
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stories, endless, polished, and
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soulless. Because AI doesn't invent, it
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imitates. It pulls from past data. We
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infer from life and use context to pull
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from our own personal experiences. That
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fight you had at 21. The smell of your
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grandmother's kitchen. The one sound
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from your hometown that still shows up
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in your mix. That's gold. That's stuff
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no machine can replicate. Even OpenAI
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admits it. AI outputs are statistical
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echoes, not original thought. That's why
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our story, our flaws, and our
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perspective may be our superpower. This
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is about doubling down on what AI cannot
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do. The future doesn't need more
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optimized content. It needs more of you.
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Chapter two, your process is the gold
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mine. AI can spit out 100 songs in a
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minute, but it can't tell you why it
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made them. Because it's blackbox
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technology, it means input in, output
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out, no story in between. But you're in
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between. The doubts, the drafts, the
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breakthroughs, the breakdowns. That's
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what people crave. Now, look at YouTube.
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Work in progress videos, behind the
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scenes edits, and breakdowns. They're
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exploding because the process is
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becoming the product. In a world where
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finished work is infinite, what's rare
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is how the work was made. The more you
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share your thoughts, your rituals, your
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setbacks, the more irreplaceable you
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become because your process cannot be
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copied and process builds trust. Chapter
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three, don't compete on speed. We are
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not going to beat AI on speed. It can
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spit out 500 melodies, 200 scripts, and
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a fake Tik Tok hit before you even plug
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in your interface. But speed doesn't
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equal meaning. Take the downward spiral
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by 9in nails. Trent Resnner wasn't
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trying to make a hit. He was building a
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world alone. He turned the whole space
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into an instrument. He'd spent hours
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mutilating sounds, degrading tapes,
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screaming through distortion until the
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emotion felt right. Not correct. Right.
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The process wasn't fast. It wasn't
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clean. But you can feel the blood on the
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walls in that record. AI doesn't spiral
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into obsession. It doesn't sit with a
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sound until it hurts. But you do. And
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that's your advantage. Stanley Cubri
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once made Shelley Dwal do 127 takes of a
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single scene in The Shining. Not because
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you wanted perfection, but because he
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was chasing something deeply
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disturbingly human, something a machine
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will never have. Emotional weight.
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Because no matter what you think of
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Stanley Cubri's process, AI is a
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consumer product. It will never ever
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push a human to the brink to chase the
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perfect moment. because if it pushes a
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human to the brink, it risks losing a
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customer. But as humans, we will. So,
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no, I don't think we will win on speed,
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but we might win on intensity, on
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intent, on the parts of the process that
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AI will always skip because they're too
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slow and too real. Chapter 4, trust will
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become key. We're not in the information
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age anymore. We are in the
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disinformation age and the internet is
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full of noise. fake authors, AI
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influencers, deep fakes, and content
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farms dressed up as authenticity. Every
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week, another post goes viral and then
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quietly disappears when people realize
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that it wasn't even made by a human. And
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that's why trust, real trust, becomes
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our most valuable currency. You don't
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need to be perfect, but you do need to
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be pleasant. You need to show your
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scars, your process, your second
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guesses, the rough drafts and voice
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notes that didn't make the final cut.
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That's what makes people believe you. In
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a world where people don't know what to
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believe anymore, the only way through, I
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think, is to show up with your full
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self. No polish, no pretending. The more
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the world gets flooded with synthetic
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content, the more powerful it becomes to
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be someone people can believe and trust
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in. Chapter five, know your enemy. If AI
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is the thing that's threatening us, our
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jobs, our identity, and our art, we
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can't just ignore it, we can't defeat
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something that we refuse to face. You
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have to study it, pick up the tools,
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break them, understand how they think or
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they don't think. Because only once
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you've studied them, do you know what
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they can't do. I think to really
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understand your enemy, you have to look
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them square in the eye. Frederick Nichze
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warned, "He who fights with monsters
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should look to it that he himself does
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not become a monster. And if you gaze
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long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes
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into you." What he meant is that when
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battling something difficult or
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dangerous, there's a real risk you might
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start adopting its worst traits
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yourself. So knowing your enemy isn't
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just about knowing what you are up
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against. It's about maintaining your
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integrity and humanity through the
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process. Because only by truly knowing
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the strengths and limits of what we face
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can we find the unique space where we
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belong and then fiercely protect it.
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That unique space is our territory. We
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must know what we are protecting every
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nook and corner of it. We need to know
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the difference between a song that was
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written by someone while typing a prompt
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in the middle of a coffee shop and a
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song that hits you like a scar
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reopening. And if we know how to
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identify even the roughest of patterns
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which belong to AI, we know what not to
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be. We know what we are seeing. You
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don't have to love the tools. But if you
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don't know what AI is capable of, and
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more importantly, what it's not, you're
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flying blind and in a war for attention,
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meaning, and jobs, you can't afford to
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be blind. Chapter six. You're an artist.
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You're already prepared. Most people
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facing the new world of gig work are
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stepping into it for the first time.
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They're lost, unsure, and trying to find
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their footing in a rapidly shifting
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landscape where many jobs feel unstable
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or obsolete. But artists, unfortunately,
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we've been here before. As creatives,
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we've lived with uncertainty, rejection,
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and the hustle long before AI became a
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threat. We're kind of used to carving
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out our space in unpredictable
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environments, adapting on the fly and
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finding meaning in the struggle. This
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experience isn't just a tough lesson.
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It's a unique strength. While others are
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still learning to navigate gig work, we
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already have the resilience and the
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flexibility to survive and perhaps even
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thrive in the strange new dystopian
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reality. The future is uncertain, yes,
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but we've been trained by years of
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creative survival to weather disruption
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better than most. And that survival
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instinct might just be the edge we
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didn't know we had all along. And
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honestly, I remember being horrified
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when I saw one of the first Dali models
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clumsily drop a Picasso in mere seconds.
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I remember thinking, "This is the worst
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this technology will ever be." And since
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then I think the future has felt a
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little uncertain for most of us. I think
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the companies came for us the artists
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first because we were an easy target.
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Our data easy to scrape and despite
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protests from artists, writers and
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musicians, there have been no signs of
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slowing down. In fact, the masses have
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embraced this tech unaware that it came
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from one of the greatest thefts in
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modern human history. But we don't just
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have to speak up. We also have to
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negotiate with the life that's staring
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us in the face. I think as artists,
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musicians, creative thinkers, we are
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uniquely positioned to show why humanity
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matters. Because if all the rule books
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of yesterday are being burned down, then
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the solutions to the future have to be
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creative. If you want me to deep dive
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into more topics about what the future
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of creative work might look like in this
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age of AI, please let me know. And if
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you're interested, I'd love to make more
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videos about it. If you stay till here,
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thank you so much. And I would love for
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you to subscribe and leave a comment. It
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means more to me than you know. As a
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musician, I love sharing my music. And
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here's a song I made recently that I'm
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really proud of. If you're interested, I
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would love for you to check it out. If
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you liked it, please leave a comment. I
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would love to connect with
