It’s a pattern I keep noticing, people are loudly anti-AI until it becomes a cute little trend, and suddenly, all that outrage gets thrown aside. The controversy around AI isn’t new. Most chronically-online users are well aware of the damage it does, not just to actual creatives, but to the environment as well.

As a creator myself, with a background in professional writing and journalism, I see first-hand how AI is making these roles feel obsolete. Why hire photographers, writers, influencers, or artists when AI can scrape existing work and churn out some overproduced slop to replace it?

I get the temptation. On the surface, it seems harmless. But human creativity and individuality is being destroyed. Watching online creatives lean into AI trends feels like watching workers vote against their own rights, actively undermining their own futures in these roles!

As a marketing executive who specialises in social media, I cannot stress enough how much AI content can harm your reach and reliability as a creator. Platforms like Google, TikTok, and Instagram don’t explicitly penalise content just for being AI-generated, BUT, their algorithms evaluate quality, originality, engagement, and trust signals.

We creators are quick to speak out when our work is stolen or not credited, but many of those same people are the ones skipping the creative process entirely and using software that essentially nicks content from elsewhere. There is no originality in that. Scrolling through my FYP, I can’t tell you how many “trendy” AI posts I’ve skipped right past. And the reason is simple: they all look identical. Bland. Uninspired. Forgettable. At the end of the day, it’s not creativity, it’s just laziness dressed up as innovation.

This isn’t about bashing people who simply don’t know any better or aren’t fully aware of how generative AI impacts creators and the environment. We all make mistakes out of naivety, I certainly have! And I hope those people live and learn.

But I am calling out the ones who do know better, yet choose not to care when it comes to churning out lazy, half-baked “content.” That isn’t creativity, it’s complicity. Please don’t add to an epidemic that’s actively destroying originality.

Be unique, be lovely, and embrace your own ideas and creativity.