In the American West, horses were once essential for transportation until automobiles revolutionized how people moved. Cars made travel more efficient and cost-effective, yet horses didn’t disappear – they evolved from necessity to specialty, maintained by the wealthy and those in specialized industries while the average person relied on automobiles. This shift from mainstream utility to cultural artifact mirrors what’s happening with artificial intelligence and creative development.
Traditional programming and content creation have long been the horses of the digital world – requiring specialized knowledge and extensive training. Just as cars democratized transportation, AI is democratizing creation, allowing the average person to create applications, generate art, craft stories, or produce videos without relying on specialized developers. Yet this democratization paradoxically threatens to strengthen existing power structures rather than disrupt them.
The fundamental issue lies in our late-stage capitalist economy, which increasingly values only what’s created by entrenched, long-standing entities. While AI will democratize the ability to create, the economy won’t necessarily value these creations. The system has evolved to reward those who move money around rather than those who produce, with dividends and financial engineering generating wealth instead of innovation and creation.
As AI transforms creative industries, we’re facing a winner-take-all economy where new entrants, despite having powerful AI tools, will struggle to compete with established players. The problem isn’t specialized knowledge becoming rare – it’s that democratized creation exists within an economic system that fundamentally doesn’t reward new participants. Without addressing these underlying economic structures, AI’s democratizing potential will be undermined by a system where creation itself has been devalued in favor of entrenched capital and established market position.
Leave a Reply