If you’re a car enthusiast, you’re probably familiar with the term ‘Kit Car’ – which relates to largely ready-to-assemble cars that are a fraction of the price as the real car; for example, the Shelby Cobra.
In the case of the Cobra, it’s quite rare to see an actual Cobra, as there are so many kit cars on the road that are amost indistinguishable from the real thing – built for 10-20% of the cost. For most of the drivers on the road in kit cars, there’s a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction from having built their new toy.
To a collector of exotic cars, kit cars are worthless – even though they’re drivable, and oftentimes just as fast as the real cars. Were you to take a kit car to a dealership and try to trade it in, you’d receive a fraction of the offer that a real Cobra would command, assuming the dealership would even accept the car in the first place.
Kit cars are a good metaphor for the changes happening in many industries right now, which are seeing widespread disruption due to AI technology.
Disney recently laid off 1,000 workers responsible for the creative direction, concepting and character development for many of the movies released in the last 20 years. Many of these employees were artists with top-tier talent levels that took decades to develop. In similar fashion, the Writers Guild staged widespread protests because many of the writers in Hollywood were/are being replaced with AI.
I know somebody personally who worked on a large number of TV shows and is now waiting tables to pay the bills.
For many creatives, the subject of AI is a very touchy one. Why? Because the way AI is trained is that it’s fed large amounts of data, content and other ‘prior art’ that was created by humans. For example, when I prompt a tool to create a piece in the style of Banksy, it knows the style of Banksy because it’s scanned and processed large quantities of Banky’s artwork.
Example: Create a photorealistic statue of a pomeranian in greco-roman style
The above image only took me a few seconds to generate. However, it would have taken an artist/graphic designer days/weeks to render in the same quality as the tool I used to create it.
AI is largely controversial because artists feel that the technology is ‘stealing’ their work and using it to create its own versions of ‘art’ – which artists will not admit is art. I know one artist in particular that’s violently opposed to AI technlogy for creative renditions – yet had no problem using it to generate his website content for several years – something I took personal note of.
Since as long as man has been alive, there’s been a desire to do things faster, better, stronger and more profitable that prior generations; there’s never been more of an apparent realization of these goals than the time we’re in today.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me: “Is AI going to take my job away?” to which I usually respond:
“It already did.”
This afternoon and evening, I had a few ‘power sessions’ with my AI tools, using them to generate a small mountain of deliverables for my clients, including the following:
- A fully-rendered/functional API Dashboard
- API Documentation knowledgebase and client-side training materials, housed in a fully-designed page
- 15 pages of sales training materials for the sales team to competently speak on the new service
- Product page announcing the API service
At the end of my work night, I shipped the deliverables off to the client, which requested them less than 24 hours ago. Prior to powering off my ‘work mode’ I asked the AI a question that startled me.
“How long would the work we did today have taken humans if they didn’t use AI?”
The answer?
4-6 weeks, which was broken down by the roles, responsibilities and timeframes it would take for standard employees, copywriters, developers and designers to have completed the tasks I completed in less than three hours.
The cost? Between $20,000-30,000.
This should amaze you as much as it should startle you, because it’s a real-life example of the direction that the world is embarking on faster than you can say the word ‘prompt’.
Earlier this week, I executed a similar task/deliverable which normally would have taken 2-3 weeks for a design/development team to complete. In this case, it took me less than 90 seconds to create the work, which I promptly shipped of to the client for review.
The loved it and immediately gave the green-light to execute the project, which will command a hefty price tag for deployment.
Why do I take the time to write these things now? Well, I think that it’s important to understand the direction the world is going, as well as highlight the roles and archetypes of people that will succeed in this environment – as well as give warning to those that will be left in the cold if they don’t adapt.
Not every industry can leverage the available technologies that we now have at our fingertips and there will be a tremendous shift felt across every living being as the markets adapt to the new potential and capabilities that a small number of people will possess because they took the time to adapt, learn and grow.
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