Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Soviet/Russian rebel and author, once said, "Live your life, not because of the prevailing politics. Live your life in spite of the prevailing politics."
But this post is not about politics. It is about artificial intelligence, and the salesmen and billionaires who think they are entitled to tell us how we will live in the not too distant future
So let me adapt Solzhenitsyn's quote. Live your life, not because of the prevailing sales pitch. Live your life in spite of the prevailing sales pitch.
Let me state, though, as clearly as I can, that I am not anti A.I.
A.I. is a tool, a simple technology that we can use, the way we have used every new technology, from the wheel, to the aqueducts, to the automobile (which many Victorians were certain would 'ruin' society)
I AM very pro human, though. Very pro humanity. And this is the focus of what I am writing. I want to focus on what I am in favor of. I don't want this to come across as being anti-anything (unless it is anti the jackasses who are selling us snake oil).
As a tool, A.I. will be in our human tool box, along with all the other tech we incorporate into our lives every day. I should also say that this is not about anything I have written. I know, this is coming from someone who has satirized and lampooned - not so much the technology - the billionaires who hope to get even richer from it.
Now, let's focus on being human and celebrating our collective humanity.
It is on us - humans - to always re-claim our place as Earth's most creative and imaginative species. And we can certainly step up to this current challenge. I am focused primarily on the creative and cultural aspects of life, because this is my field. Artistically speaking, A.I does not have a chance. A.I. could never have written Jack Kerouac's "On The Road." A.I. could never have made Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove."
A.I. could never have created the satirical chaos and hilarious anarchy that is Monty Python's "Life of Brian."
A.I. could 'write' some of these things now, because they already exist, and A.I, is pretty good at plagiarizing what already exists. But human artists and comedians paved the way. Soaring imagination is a uniquely human gift.
As a creative force. A.I. will simply regurgitate things that have already been done. Maybe that's good enough for Marvel movie sequels, but it is the job of the human artist to imagine something uniquely new and daring. If we do this, A.I. does not have a chance.
Now, a little admission; I have used a little bit of A.I. myself. I've been digitizing old video tapes - video tape deteriorates in a unique way, different from, say, old film stock. I paid for a little bit of A.I. cleanup of a couple old tapes I sent in to digitize. The results were...only okay. Not brilliant or anything. Maybe SLIGHTLY better than the original version. Nothing exciting, just a little bit better. So, yes, A.I. is a tool we humans can use. But creativity, imagination, originality, these - I am convinced - will remain the sole territory of human artists.
So, let's stop freaking out about what A.I. will change, and get on with the business of being human!
I was lucky enough to witness first hand the growing 1980s punk scene, that eventually blew up into the early 90s 'grunge' explosion. No one in the music business knew what to do with it. It totally and completely turned what the executives thought they knew, on their heads. It was a genuine, human, emotional and heartfelt movement that caught all the business guys, all the 'experts' completely off guard. This is a good example of something uniquely human - something that defied what everyone THOUGHT was supposed to be popular.
The same went for the French 'Impressionist' art movement of the 1870s and 1880s.
What about all the other ground-breaking creative movements of the past 100-plus years?
Jazz. The early days of Hollywood movies. Pablo Picasso. Beat poets. Rock and Roll. French New Wave Cinema. Andy Warhol. Catcher In The Rye. Street rap music from the early 80s (dismissed by cultural experts) that turned into the foundation of so much music recorded today. The new Hollywood of Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Coppola, of the 70s. The indie film explosion of the 90s.
Humans created these movements. Humans will always be the ones to turn the establishment on its head.
So quit worrying. Start imagining. Create new movements, in that unique way that only humans with human imaginations can. Put A.I. in its place, as an over-hyped, over-sold, limited, slightly dumb phenomenon.
Everything else is just a sales pitch.
Let's put new technology into perspective and roll our eyes at the religiosity in the sales pitch.
My motto going forward is:
Question the rules.
Be creative.
Leave 'em laughing.
Peter Wick
September 13, 2025
