Creative Professionals Are Using AI-Just Not Talking About It
Fifty-five percent of Americans believe AI will do more harm than good in their daily lives, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. Yet the technology has already infiltrated workplaces, pricing, and processes most people use without realizing it. The real story: far more creative professionals are using AI than will admit it publicly.
Fear drives the silence. Screenwriter Dara Resnik said people at dinner parties will quietly confess they use AI as a tool, then immediately worry they'll be seen as less of an artist. Writers face particular pressure after the WGA won protections against AI use-admitting to using it feels like admitting to something shameful, even when the tool is simply replacing hours of tedious work.
This tension defines the present moment with AI. The technology is early, uncomfortable, and inescapable. Nobody can predict whether skeptics will look prescient or out of touch in a year.
How creatives are actually using AI
José González, an indie folk artist, used AI to generate video elements and help with lyrics on his latest album. He edited the AI-generated content heavily. The result: over 90 percent negative comments from fans who preferred his acoustic authenticity.
Author James Frey uses AI as a thesaurus and spelling aid. He's explicit about this to avoid accusations of deception. "AI doesn't write for me," Frey said. "AI doesn't have a soul. AI can't feel or understand any human emotion or idea or feeling."
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, hosts of the Acquired podcast, chat with Claude daily while researching companies. The AI is about 10 percent better than they are at pulling out key insights. They use it to rank-order episode ideas and generate pitches, cutting their selection process from 10 days to two.
Screenwriter and producer Dara Resnik uses AI to check if the rules of a fictional world remain consistent-work that previously took hours of manual review.
An anonymous art director said the tool has changed how advertising pitches get made. What once required six or seven hours in Photoshop-hundreds of iterations, client notes, revisions-now takes minutes with AI image generation. "There's hundreds of iterations internally, notes from your creative director, notes from the client, changing it, changing it back," the art director said. Now the work is done faster, freeing time for actual creative projects.
For fashion-store owner Alex Tao, AI has become a screening tool. He uses it to find models by scraping Instagram followers and parsing for specific parameters. For less public-facing work, hesitation disappears.
The limits creatives are setting
Manny Fidel, a podcast host and producer, draws a clear line. He'll let AI handle some production work-multicam editing now exists-but refuses to let it write his emails to potential guests. "When it asks to write an email to a potential guest? That's when I cut it off," Fidel said.
He tested Claude to suggest podcast guests. One recommendation had been dead since 2014.
An R&B artist's creative director shoots film for any artistic project, despite the extra time and cost. Digital gets reserved for casual work like fit checks before parties. The difference matters: someone spending two hours finding AI-generated reference images versus someone spending hours in photography bookstores and on trains will approach their work differently.
Bradley Carbone, a consultant and editor, views AI as a tool for low-stakes work. "Most of the people that use AI are the dumber people in the horde," he said. "They use it to fill in the holes-making decks, writing emails, design stuff." When he receives an AI-generated email, he makes a mental note about the sender's judgment.
A podcast owner fired his producer over AI use. The tool stripped out laughter and natural back-and-forth, making episodes feel processed. "I got really mad at him and that was it," the owner said.
The skeptics
Alexis Hope, a technologist and musician who worked at the MIT Media Lab, is hesitant to admit she doesn't use AI. "I'm shocked by so many of my peers," she said. "We've been through crypto, NFTs, the metaverse...you really think this is the one?"
She surveyed her online coworking community about AI. Creative workers mostly disliked it. Neurodivergent creatives had a different reaction: AI helped with executive function and decision-making, allowing them to execute on their actual creative work.
A Grammy-winning artist views AI evangelists as either terrified of missing a trend or complicit in wealth extraction. "The people banging on about it-get on board or else you're dead-are just old guys terrified of missing a boat," the artist said. AI-generated music charts because algorithmic services promote it, not because audiences genuinely prefer it. "Put it on tour!" the artist challenged.
Understanding AI as a tool
Substitute the word "computing" every time you read "artificial intelligence" in a headline. That's the core fact worth remembering.
AI is advanced computing with sophisticated input-output processing. It's not alive. It's not magic. Treat it like a flathead screwdriver, a keyboard, or Photoshop-a tool that's potentially effective and dangerous in the wrong hands.
The question isn't whether AI is good or bad. It's how you choose to use it. Some creatives use it to eliminate drudgery. Others see it as a shortcut that degrades their work. Both positions can coexist in the same industry, even the same dinner party.
The only certainty: everyone will soon have to address whether they use it. Hiding becomes harder each month.
For guidance on using AI effectively, explore AI for Creatives and learn Prompt Engineering techniques that separate thoughtful tool use from lazy shortcuts.
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