If You’re Scared of AI, You’re Probably Not That Creative

Part 6 of 7 of the Series: Artpocalypse Now: The Rise of the Machines and the Fall of the Gatekeepers

Let’s get something straight right out of the gate: if AI art tools have you shaking in your ethically-sourced artisanal boots, it might be time to question your confidence, not the technology.

This constant panic, this incessant screeching about “the death of art” and “the end of originality”—it all reeks of one thing: fear. Not of losing art. Not of losing culture. But of losing relevance.

And that’s a tough pill to swallow when your identity is built on being the “creative one.”

The Insecure Artist’s Nightmare

You know the type. The ones who act like creativity is a sacred superpower bestowed only upon those who’ve spent years suffering through critique circles and overpriced art school courses. They strut like high priests of imagination, gatekeeping like their lives depend on it.

And then—bam—along comes an AI tool that allows a random teenager in Brazil or a stay-at-home dad in Iowa to generate jaw-dropping visuals in minutes.

Suddenly, the “creative elite” isn’t so elite. And for some folks, that’s not just uncomfortable—it’s existentially threatening.

Why?

Because deep down, they’re not afraid that AI will kill creativity. They’re afraid AI will expose a lack of it.

Real Creatives Don’t Fear Tools—They Use Them

Let’s rewind history for a moment. Every time a new tool came along—photography, Photoshop, digital tablets, 3D modeling, even the freaking pencil—there were people crying doom.

But you know what actual creatives did?

They adapted. They explored. They experimented. They pushed boundaries. Because real creativity thrives on change. It feeds on new possibilities. It doesn’t whine about how things used to be.

If your idea of being an artist is so rigid that it can’t survive a new tool, then maybe it’s time to ask yourself what you were actually relying on: your ideas… or your exclusivity?

You’re Not Threatened Because It’s “Not Creative”

You’re threatened because it is.

Let’s be real: if AI art was garbage, nobody would care. If it truly looked like soulless, derivative mush, traditional artists would just scoff and move on. But it doesn’t.

It looks good. Sometimes great. Sometimes better than what some people can produce after years of study.

And that’s what’s setting off alarm bells.

Not the ethics. Not the methods. Not the pixels. The results.

Because if a machine—or worse, a non-artist with a good prompt—can create something compelling without going through the “proper channels,” what does that say about the importance of all that training?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: AI is creative. It generates. It adapts. It surprises. It doesn’t need to “feel” to create things that make you feel. It just needs to output things that work.

And if that threatens your sense of identity, you might want to re-evaluate your creative foundations.

The Strong Creatives Are Already Winning

Want to know who’s thriving right now? The ones who leaned in. The illustrators using AI for thumbnails. The authors using it to brainstorm characters. The designers using it to iterate on ideas ten times faster.

They didn’t stomp their feet and yell “cheater!” They saw the revolution coming, grabbed a surfboard, and started riding the wave.

Because here’s the thing: tools don’t replace artists. They reveal them. They magnify the gap between those with vision and those just following a formula.

And AI is shining a massive spotlight on that gap.