Here’s a business idea for the modern age.
AI looms over us all like a brooding shadow. Fears of AI replacing human-created novels, magazines, photography, illustrations and more have wormed their way into people’s minds.
“Human-created.” That gives me an idea. I bet I could do something with that.
The surge of AI content isn’t new. In fact, it is very similar to the rise of factory-made goods during and immediately after the Industrial Revolution. Mass-produced furniture, mass-produced clothing, mass-produced vehicles, mass-produced toys … The list goes on.
And now, in this present age, we have the advent of mass-produced media. AI-generated books by the hundreds. Essays written by a computer trained on patterns and Internet-scouring. Art produced in seconds by an artificial mind.
Horrific? Maybe. But if history told us something about mass production, it is that the value of bespoke goods subsequently became much, much higher.
AI slop is all the same. It blends together, united by bland, tedious styles that bear little semblance to the elaborate creativity of the human mind. That makes human-made art and writing valuable. And if AI slop becomes the norm, if large businesses make extensive use of it, than a new niche market opens up.
Bespoke entertainment. Non-AI media. The personal touch of a living person. Stories and art pieces created by human minds for human minds.
It’s not a new business. People have been publishing books for centuries. People have been drawing pictures for millennia. They have charged money for both.
But if AI content becomes the norm, then human-made content becomes rarer. Skilled employees are being laid off by big businesses in favor of replacing their skills with cheaper AI. If I was a small to medium-sized business owner, I’d be snapping up as many of those people as possible. The value of their skills is going to increase.
A suit custom-made for an individual, crafted by the hands of skilled labor, demands a higher price than a generic suit made in a factory. A custom car is more expensive than a basic model.
Imagine then, the value of a book, a magazine, a comic, a painting, a textbook that, in an age where AI-generation is the norm, has been created personally by a living, breathing person.
That’s not a fear. That’s an opportunity.
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Many thanks for visiting my blog. I post updates on my writing career, I muse over storytelling and fiction, and I reflect on the curious and wonderful things in life.
“Hermes is not having the best time. He walks a fine line, and his duty as messenger of Olympus weighs heavily on him. Being a god in the modern age means living in a world that no longer believes in gods. How much can one deity accomplish when no one respects him anymore? And why do his instincts tell him that he, the son of Zeus, is losing favor with his own family?
Tensions abound. The upstart Young Gods play dangerous games using entire cities as their boards. Formless monsters strike from the nighttime shadows, terrorizing hapless mortals. Agents of rival pantheons scheme to thwart Olympus’ designs. In the thick of it all, Hermes does what he does best: trick, lie, and cheat his way to victory.“
Jake W. Powell 