Kevin Kelly, renowned futurist and co-founder of Wired magazine, offers a compelling hypothesis about the future of creative content in an AI-driven world:
My hypothesis is that in the near future, most human-made creative content, created with AI assistance, will have an audience of one. The vast majority of art generated daily will be consumed primarily by its human co-creator alone. Only a small fraction of finished artwork will ever be shared with others.
Creation for the Pure Joy of It
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If this holds true, why bother with creation at all? Kelly posits that in the future, creation will be driven mainly by the pleasure of the process itself. In other words, most creative work will be generated primarily for the joy and excitement of co-creation.
Consider the current landscape: approximately 50 million images are generated daily by AI systems. Only a tiny fraction of these 50 million images are ever seen by anyone other than their creators. The creation of still images already largely serves an audience of one.
Much of this immense output consists of sketches: drafts, doodles, notes, and phrases not intended for public consumption. Yet, even completed creations are often not shared, simply because they are made for pleasure.
The Analogy of Nature and the Journal
Kelly draws a powerful analogy:
You might create an endless stream of beauty for the same reason you stroll through a garden or hike in the mountains, hoping to capture a fleeting moment. You might share what you find, but that's not the reason you go. You go for the enjoyment. I imagine walking through a garden or hiking in the mountains (barring transportation issues) as an act of co-creation.
Together with nature, we co-create moments of beauty that we can find. Most of the beauty in the world is never seen by anyone. When we witness a mesmerizing view or an exquisite play of light, we become an audience of one. The joy is in discovery; sharing comes later.
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Traditional Parallels: Diaries and Sketchbooks
We already have traditional parallels for the audience of one: journals, sketchbooks, diaries, and logbooks. Creations in these forms are not intended for dissemination, and in some cases, it is precisely their limited audience that makes them so impactful. They bring a kind of safeguarded solitude to the creative act, a power that will also be part of co-creation with AI.
These types of private art often serve as a generative platform for larger works.
However, by sheer volume, a true artist can create far more material in solitude than is ever publicly displayed. If you ask an artist why they fill notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals, they will tell you it's not because their creation is incomplete, but because they simply love to create; they enjoy it.
From now on, the majority of art will by default be for one, and it will remain in the memories of those who create it.
