142: Consumers as creators. Lessons about AI.

Maybe it’s time to think of customers as creators rather than consumers.

Today I watched a TED talk about a woman who studies prehistoric cave art. It was pretty interesting. I’ll provide a link below.

In some cases, people tens of thousands of years ago – that’s before flashlights, by the way – crawled their way through narrow tunnels to incredible depths and then scribbled things on the wall.

Who did they think was going to see that?

But they did it anyway.

Art of various sorts – representative and non-representative – goes way back in our history. And we don’t know what sorts of songs and stories people told around the fire. That stuff goes deep into our collective memories.

Have you ever heard of a misericord? It’s an intricate pattern carved into the underside of a choir seat, usually in a monastery. Most people don’t even notice them. So why were they made?

We’re creators. We like to make things. And it’s not all utilitarian stuff. There are lots of examples of people making art for art’s sake.

What does this have to do with publishing in the modern world?

It’s easy to think of AI as the world-ending comet that’s going to destroy everything. Publishers have it really bad, because they’re generally in the business of selling things that AI will make for free, or close to free.

Don’t give up hope. The human desire to create is very deep and very strong. We can – and we should – view AI as competition. It will definitely disrupt jobs and business models.

But we should also look at it as a tool. What kinds of amazing things will humans create with the help of AI?

What could Handel have done if he had AI to help him?

But this is a podcast for publishers, so how does this relate to the business of publishing?

Maybe it means that you need to shift your view of your customer from consumer to creator.

Maybe you need to find ways to help your customers use AI to create amazing things. Because the desire to create is deeply entrenched in their brains. Whatever topic or specialty you focus on. That’s a passing thing. It’s yesterday. It’s trivial in the context of the long history of our species.

But creation? Somebody crawled a third of a mile underground to scribble some stuff on a wall. The desire to create is an enduring fact about humans.

So – how can you fit that into your business model?

Resources

Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe | Genevieve von Petzinger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnEQCMA5Sg