The audience
I rarely jot down thoughts related to work. Half my blog is nonsense: snippets related to comedy and performing. Writing, outside of the context of work, is a safe-haven.
Recently, though, I've been thinking a lot about AI. Not just because it's related to work, but because of its relationship to art, and artists. I've always been worried it'll replace us - that writers, producers, even comedians - will be replaced with agents.
And a podcast episode I recently listened to made me change my mind. In it, Tobi Lutke, CEO of Shopify, brings up chess:
"The best game of chess in every year of the last 20 years has been played by machine against machine.
...And nobody gives a shit. No one watches those matches. No one studies them, but everyone knows who Magnus Carlsen is. We actually care not about chess. We care about humans playing chess."
This is related to a general principle I have around all of this:
Art and entertainment is created for an audience. And, the audience cares about specific things. They care about the ritual behind the game of chess -- the players, their styles, each players stake in the game.
Audiences of comedy and painting and movies care still that something was created by a human. Knowing that something was generated by AI ...does play a role in how satisfying the content is.
Just generally, even though AI exists, it still operates within the confines of consumer and market demands.