History is repeating itself. Don’t get caught LARPing in the past.

created with chatGPT

Let’s just get this out of the way… AI is a threat. There, I said it.

Not the “robots take over and melt your Wacom tablet” kind of threat. No, this is the thrilling, terrifying, deeply motivating kind of threat. I realized the threat of AI firsthand not because it replaced me, but because I misused it. Somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking like an artist and started thinking like a content factory. I was leaning on AI to expedite during the ideation and conceptual phases. At some point, without even noticing, it robbed me of the thing I treasured most… my creative thinking. The technique I had proudly coined, Ghost Sketching, which once allowed me to explore wild new styles and concepts while reinterpreting AI outputs through my own illustrations, had turned into a shortcut. A crutch. A creative disconnect.

So I stopped. For months. I put the AI down, picked up my notebook, and went back to sketching stupid little doodles. I had to reconnect with what made me feel electric again. Then… the new ChatGPT updates hit. Everything clicked. The tools were finally behaving like I dreamed they would back in 2022. Not replacing my creativity, but expanding it. Now I use AI to rapidly iterate on my original artwork or idea, test different styles, and bring to life random ideas I never had time to visualize before. I found the fun again. More importantly, I found the boundary. When to use AI, and when to let my weird human brain do its messy, brilliant thing.

There is another threat the creative industry faces but it’s not the first time. Artists have faced this threat every time a new tool showed up and started smashing the rules.

AI is Photoshop in 1989. It’s the camera in 1839. It’s the moment when oil painters screamed into the abyss because someone invented portable paint tubes and now everyone could paint outside like a filthy casual. Spoiler, those painters didn’t die. They started Impressionism.

Artist & Designers… We’re Standing in the Middle of History

If you’re already using AI, even casually, you’ve probably felt it. The speed, the madness, the “holy crap this just saved me 4 hours” high.

If you’re not using AI yet, maybe you’ve thought…

“It’s cheating.”

“It’s lazy.”

“It’s derivative.”

“It’s going to ruin the industry.”

Honestly, you’re not wrong… but you’re not right either. Here’s my truth, AI is a threat worth learning. Leverage is being confused with laziness. Like every creative disruption before it, it’s not the tool that defines your fate, it’s how you respond to it. The meaningful use and intention behind executing your human vision.

Art vs. Every New Tool Ever

Let’s play a quick round of “Creative Panic Through the Ages”:

Photography. “It will kill painting!”

Result, it gave birth to surrealism, abstraction, and every aesthetic that didn’t rely on hyper-realism.

Duchamp’s urinal. “This isn’t art!”

Result, Redefined what art could be. Entire museums now built around conceptual rebellion. Readymade art was born.

Warhol’s screen printing & assistants. “He doesn’t even make his own stuff!”

Result,Pop Art, cultural icon status, millions at auction, infinite soup cans.

Digital art tools. “Pixels aren’t real art.”

Result, Every movie, ad, concept painting, video game, and modern masterpiece.

Now it’s AI-generated visuals. “It’s lazy! It’s soulless! It’s stealing!”

Result, TBD. But spoiler: the artists who adapt will define the next era.

Is It a Threat? Duh, but a threat worth leanring.

AI is changing design forever. That’s not a warning. That’s a challenge. It’s threatening speed norms. It’s threatening value expectations. It’s threatening who gets to call themselves creative… For those of us who’ve been doing this for 10, 15, 20 years? We’ve got something AI can’t replicate, taste, vision, and lived experience.

Also for the first time, you don’t need a degree or expensive software to make something that looks amazing. The everyday person can design their own event flyers, logos, social posts, and product mockups without ever stepping foot in a design school. If that speaks to you. You’re not locked out of the creative world anymore. In fact, you’re right in the middle of it. What used to take professionals hours to build can now be prototyped by anyone with an idea and the courage to try. This doesn’t make trained designers obsolete, it just means you’re invited to the party now, too. The playing field is wider. Your voice matters. And if you’ve ever said, “I’m not creative,” now’s the time to prove yourself wrong.

AI can guess what “cool” looks like. You know why cool matters in the first place.

The Opportunity You Can’t Afford to Sleep On

Here’s the part that gets me excited and honestly, keeps me up at night. We are standing in the middle of the largest creative accessibility shift in history.

AI is lowering the barrier to entry ( and unfortunately projects costs, it was bound to happen) but it’s raising the bar for originality. It’s highlighting the negative of remix culture and exposing it as regurgitation culture. Artist copying famous cartoons and selling it for millions while claiming fair use. BS they are using someone’s else’s character and just because you altered it or painted it doesn’t mean it’s valuable, well at least to me. This is going to ruffle plenty of mimic artists and collectors out there. If you even read this far anyway. Anyone can generate an idea. But who can make it mean something?

That’s where you come in.

You, the creative who’s curious, battle-tested, and maybe a little weird or the business owner looking to for options. You don’t need to fight AI. You need to dance with it. Let it handle the busywork. Let it throw you off balance. Let it suggest something you’d never come up with on your own, then finish it with soul, craft, and irreverent human intuition.

So What Do You Do About It?

I’m not telling you to sell your soul to the Sam Altman. I’m just saying… maybe crack open the an app and start messing around. God forbid you experiment.

This isn’t the death of art or design. This is the next renaissance. You don’t have to be scared. You just have to show up and create even louder, weirder, and smarter than ever. We need creators with soul and taste to discover the boundaries with these tools , especially now that “anyone” can make a thing. Adaptation isn’t optional, but your unique human voice? That’s irreplaceable.

History’s happening. Create like it.