The Importance of Being Edgy

If you are a professional in the field of design, art, development or any creative service, you have probably found yourself pondering about the future of your profession in the age of AI.

The bad news is: your profession will change. The good news is: you can change it by leveraging AI.

Upon seeing the umpteenth post on LinkedIn about the advances of the latest LLM and how it can generate photos, code, designs at unprecedented speed, you eventually have to come to terms with the topic, whether you have been trying to ignore it or not. The sequence of emotional states I have observed within me usually follows a similar pattern:

1. Unconditional, unbiased awe towards the advancement of technology and human innovation. This can be observed in comments like "this is insane", "amazing what AI can do now" etc..
2. Discomfort and dread once the inevitable link to your profession is established in your brain. Reactions become more ironic like "I guess I should start looking for another job already".
3. Panic, fear, and confusion. Here the onset of rejection may already appear in comments such as "this is concerning and needs to be regulated".
4. Rejection, opposition, disbelief. This state is the most conflictual and ranges from trying to discredit the content of the post as a fabrication – which actually has happened – to the firm conviction that AI is not as good as they say it is, or, if it is, that it's up to government and institutions to place limits and regulate it.
5. Acceptance and solution-oriented research. Having finally accepted and internalized the issue, you start looking for ways to learn AI and to use it to your advantage.

It's important to take the necessary time in each step to be able to see a path towards the 5th. The speed at which this process takes place depends on several aspects like your job, company, environment etc.., but each step carries the risk of getting stuck in a logical loop that reinforces the same emotional state. The important part is to get there, because that's where the work begins. While AI tools continue to advance at a remarkable pace, there are fundamental aspects of human creativity that remain distinctly human. Understanding these aspects is crucial for creative professionals looking to maintain their edge and relevance in an AI-augmented future.

Human creativity emerges from a complex interplay of experiences, memories, cultural context, and unconscious processing that machines simply cannot replicate. Unlike AI, which operates within defined parameters and trained patterns, human creativity can make truly unexpected connections and generate genuinely novel ideas.

Consider how a designer might draw inspiration from the way light filters through leaves on their morning commute, combining this with memories of a childhood kaleidoscope to create an innovative user interface pattern. This type of emergent creativity – where disparate experiences combine in unpredictable ways to form something entirely new – remains uniquely human.

One of humanity's most powerful creative tools is our ability to deliberately deviate from established patterns. While AI excels at finding optimal solutions within given parameters, humans can choose to:

• Intentionally break established rules for artistic effect
• Question fundamental assumptions about a problem
• Pursue "inefficient" paths that lead to unexpected discoveries
• Create entirely new paradigms rather than optimizing existing ones

This capacity for alternative thinking isn't just about being different – it's about making conscious choices to explore uncharted territory. A human architect might deliberately design a building that challenges conventional wisdom about structure and form, not because it's optimal, but because it provokes thought and emotion.

Perhaps our most significant advantage lies in our emotional intelligence and its role in creative expression. Humans create not just from intellect, but from:

• Personal experiences of joy, pain, and everything in between
• Deep emotional connections to our work and audience
• Intuitive understanding of human emotional needs
• The ability to channel complex emotional states into creative works

When a musician composes a piece that captures the complexity of grief, or when a writer crafts a story that perfectly encapsulates the bittersweet nature of growing up, they're drawing on emotional depths that AI cannot fathom. This emotional creativity isn't just about representing emotions – it's about transforming them into something new and meaningful.

The key to thriving as a creative professional in the age of AI isn't to compete with machines at their own game, but to lean into these uniquely human capabilities. This means:

1. Embracing emergent creativity by actively cultivating diverse experiences and allowing time for unexpected connections to form
2. Developing your capacity for alternative thinking by challenging conventions and exploring unconventional approaches
3. Nurturing your emotional intelligence and finding ways to channel it into your creative work

AI tools should be viewed as powerful amplifiers of human creativity rather than replacements for it. By understanding and developing our unique creative capabilities, we can work alongside AI to create things that neither humans nor machines could achieve alone.

The future of creative professions lies not in resistance to AI, but in the thoughtful integration of artificial and human intelligence, each contributing its unique strengths to the creative process.