AI is Telling the Wrong Tale
In a sort of inverse of how the UK’s John Lewis ads annually celebrate the warm wonderfulness of the holidays, Apple seems to have invented a new tradition: ads that annually remind us that dystopian technological forces are crushing our unique voices. Last year, we saw all our favorite instruments of creativity being destroyed in favor of the iPhone. This season, we see how AI is stamping out our originality so that we can all drone on in the same dull corporate tones.
It’s either the worst strategy ever or there are some very clever subversive characters working in the Apple creative dept desperately trying to send out a warning.
Tech companies are so hellbent on finding ways to celebrate the “efficiencies” that AI could bring, that we are losing sight of what innovation’s greatest promise really is: liberty. Technology continues to be the third greatest engine of creativity in the history of man, next to education and human imagination itself. I’ve written a million ads, three novels and countless screenplays largely thanks to Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Even just imagining banging those things out on an Underwood typewriter makes my fingers ache - not to mention all the typos. Ugh. How did Edith Wharton even do it?
We need to be telling the story of technology as one of empowerment. How are we using these powerful tools to fight the polarity, alienation and isolation of our times? How are we using them to remove barriers to progress? How is AI bringing dreams to life? How are they making creativity happen? How are they serving ambition? How are they making life more fun?
These are the stories. There are a million of them. I know our work at Lafayette American has gotten immeasurably easier thanks to AI, every single day these tools help us show our clients bigger ideas. We don’t need the giant in-house studio that huge agencies used to lean on for their epic presentations. We can make our own epic presentation with video, animation, new music, and zero typos in the same amount of time they can. So now it’s not about who has the most resources, it’s about who has the best idea. The playing field has been leveled, forever. Despite what that Apple commercial would have you believe, AI is not going to make the unique voices disappear, it’s going to sharpen them and make them shine.
