
08/28/2025
If A.I. continues to speed or automate creative work, the total volume of cultural “stuff”—podcasts, blog posts, videos, books, songs, articles, animations, films, shows, plays, polemics, online personae, and so on—will increase. Will it submerge human originality in a sea of unmotivated, formulaic art, or allow for the expression of new visions?
“Right now, we talk about, Is A.I. good or bad for content creators?,” the Silicon Valley pioneer Jaron Lanier noted. “But it’s possible that the very notion of ‘content’ will go away, and that content will be replaced with live synthesis that’s designed to have an effect on the recipient.” One day, Lanier speculated, all sorts of cultural experiences—music, video, reading, gaming, conversation—might flow from a single “A.I. hub.” There would be no artists to pay, and the owners of the hubs would be able to exercise extraordinary influence over their audiences. “You would be getting a tailored experience, but your perception would be that it’s shared with a bunch of other people.”
“Compared with the specificity of real art made by actual individuals with authentic lives, I thought, culture generated ad infinitum, in a formless flow, devoid of context or personality, would be meaningless,” Rothman writes. But “perhaps we’ll be able to make meaning for ourselves out of automated art.” Read about how A.I. could change culture: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/AtSPBE