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Persevering the Future of Human Creativity in the new Age of Generative AI…

- - - - Training: At first, the AI is given a very large dataset, from text to images and audio. Using ‘deep learning’ techniques, it analyzes this data to build itself a mathematical representation of the patterns and relationships that the data holds within. This is done with or even without supervision in some cases.
      - Pattern Learning: This complex network will then adjust itself to understand the structure of the data. For example, a generative AI image model learns how pixels form shapes, colours, and textures.
      - Generation: After steps one and two are complete, AI models are then able to generate content based on a user's prompt/input. Again, looking at this from an image generation perspective, this begins by sorting out all the random noise generated until it becomes a coherent image based on the user's prompt.
      - Refinement: Finally, once the output is generated, it can be further refined through a process called reinforcement learning, which typically involves the use of human feedback. This is the act of humans rating the AI’s output so it can adjust itself to produce a ‘better’ output more closely aligned to a human-like result to satisfy the user.
  - - - This report by AI Now closely examines how the current widespread adoption of AI is concentrating this new found power within the tech industry and its leaders, however this power is inflated and vulnerable which is key to understand despite their vast amount of power so far, giving society a chance to prevail.
        
        “AI is fundamentally about concentration of power in the hands of Big Tech. (Brennan, Kak, West, 2025)”
        
        “Around 2012, as it became apparent that substantial gains in model performance could come simply from applying larger and larger scale data and computational resources to existing algorithms, tech giants moved quickly to shore up their existing advantages and hire talent." (Brennan, Kak, West, 2025)
        
        “This is in part because building AI bigger requires enormous resources, both financial and social, to achieve unrestricted growth at breakneck speed—resources that AI companies own and control.” (Brennan, Kak, West, 2025)
        
        “These tech oligarchs are counting on a wholesale rewriting of our social and economic foundations, using AI as the justification. From breaking apart the US federal government and raiding citizen data under the guise of efficiency, to redesigning workflows to devalue human labor and creativity so they are AI-ready, to redirecting our entire energy infrastructure to prioritize their technology over people’s basic needs, the vision promulgated by tech oligarchs requires, as a foundation, the unraveling of core social, political, and economic fabrics.” (Brennan, Kak, West, 2025)
        
        AI is being used as a tool by these powerful tech companies to negatively reshape society so it works in their favour. In today's world, so far, AI is used as a justification to create major social and economic changes, which overall negatively impact humans but increase value for the corporation. This is a clear sign that a change must be made to the trajectory of this technology before it is too late. Not only to preserve our human creativity but to preserve the life humans have worked so hard to build in the first place. This is a true explanation of what AI really is, it is not what we were told it is, nor what it will be. In the end, it will always serve these companies more than we would ever know.
        
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        This unravelling has already begun, with President Trump's administration's deletion of climate data, which is a perfect example of how erasing information can weaken democratic accountability and further maintain their control. "The second Trump administration has altered and removed substantial federal environmental information, particularly relating to environmental justice and climate change. On President Trump’s second day of his second term in office, the administration took down the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool data and map used to identify overburdened communities." (Pacenza, I. et al. 2025)
        
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        This is important because it provides context showing that AI is not truly intelligent in itself. It was built upon our human culture, resources and labour that Big Tech was able to capture and control. The big illusion exposed here is that this machine is not creating anything, actually new; it is just repackaging the collective of human knowledge from the data these companies collected and scraped together over the years.
        
        This reveals how AI's overwhelming dominance is capturing the tech industry. Once scaling was found to be the best way forward, Big Tech was able to hit the ground running before anyone smaller in the industry could even do anything, which solidified their position at the top. AI is an empire; remaining unchecked further will only allow for more corporate control.
        
        This statement illustrates how AI is not a neutral or pure scientific advancement. This exposes how AI is being developed and deployed in ways that are primarily driven by corporate power and not for a positive collective societal benefit. Everything it takes to create and run this technology is controlled only by Big Tech, giving them the power to wield.
      - Important to note: “Technology is one of the major sources of public power in modern societies. So far as decisions affecting our daily lives are concerned, political democracy is largely overshadowed by the enormous power wielded by the masters of technical systems: corporate and military leaders, and professional associations of groups such as physicians and engineers. They have far more to do with control over patterns of urban growth, the design of dwellings and transportation systems, the selection of innovations, our experience as employees, patients, and consumers, than all the governmental institutions of our society put together.” (Feenberg, 1992)
- - - - Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and many inventions
      - William Shakespeare: Created some of the best works of literature considered within the English Language
      - Vincent Van Gogh: Painter of the Starry Night one of the most famous paintings in the world alongside Vinci and others
      - Albert Einstein: World-famous theoretical physicist who developed relativity
      - Issac Newton: One of the most influential scientists of all time
      - These few examples of famous creative thinkers help to represent creativity for what it is: the highest expression of human imagination and originality. Creativity was not just about producing things for them; it was about seeing the world differently, which ultimately transformed society through their new ideas. They also illustrate creativity as the purest form of human freedom, in which we can imagine things differently, dream, challenge, and feel. These are some of the qualities that define our humanity, something we must preserve.
        
        In comparison to how GenAI works and examples of actual creative thinkers, it exposes how our creativity is so unique and cannot be easily replicated through AI
- - - - It is known that AI depends on the mass extraction of human-generated content, which can be anything from conversations and images to cultural knowledge and a whole range of other data. For the most part, this data was gathered without consent or any awareness. What this then challenges is the traditional ideas of ownership, privacy, and authorship and replaces it with corporations gaining more control and continue to exploit. From an ethical point of view, however, this exposes how AI is not an innovation but rather the appropriation of human creativity and labour.
        
        "Many AI systems collect data quietly, without drawing attention, which can lead to serious privacy breaches. These covert techniques often go unnoticed by users, raising ethical concerns about transparency and consent.
        This lack of awareness among users can foster a false sense of security, as individuals may not fully grasp how their data is being gathered, analyzed, and utilized. Techniques such as browser fingerprinting, user behavior tracking, and the deployment of hidden cookies function in the background, frequently without explicit consent." (DataGuard, 2024)
      - The Hidden Workforce behind AI
        
        "However, behind the sleek interfaces and impressive capabilities of many AI systems lies a hidden workforce of humans. This "human-in-the-loop" model reveals a more complex reality, one where AI is less about replacing humans and more about relying on workers with decent work deficits, such as low earnings, lack of social protection benefits and occupational safety and health to sustain the AI system." (Dhir, Rani, 2024)
        
        On the outside, AI is a polished, autonomous entity. However, this is a facade because, in reality, this technology requires an extensive amount of human labour to make these systems function. All around the world, workers are given a variety of small tasks on contract to sift through large amounts of data. This job is meticulous and often emotionally taxing. This work has become severely undervalued and, for the most part, unseen, but essential to the existence of AI. This creates a new class divide where low-paid labourers are supporting technological progression, but only benefiting a small number of corporations. The term used to describe this kind of work is called 'Ghost Work', where this human work is hidden and believed to be automated. Despite the narratives, AI cannot operate without this sustained human effort, creativity and judgement. Ethically speaking, this questions labour rights, fairness, and the social cost of AI's progression once again, challenging the idea that AI is itself intelligent and showing its efficiency and power is parasitic on the invisible work of humans
        
        The existence of AI depends on HUMAN imagination, decision making, and interpretation!
      - Data that is used to create and train AI technology was scraped without consent.
  - - - Deepfakes
        
        AI has the ability now to replicate with ease artistic styles, photographs, and even human likenesses, which is confusing what is real and what is now AI-generated. These Deepfakes are now undermining trust within journalism, media, and art, further blurring the lines between actual human outputs and machine-generated content. Where truth is essential, now AI is creating societal consequences for our democracy, culture, and public discourse.
      - Trust becoming eroded in Creativity
        
        As AI gains more capabilities, generating things like music, writings, or works of visual art can now be created on demand. What this highlights is the diminishing value of human skills, originality and imagination.
        
        In response to GenAI content creation comes transparency and labelling initiatives, not only are they to help in the identification of AI-generated work, making it more clear something was created by or with AI, but also to help emphasize a more human authorship, consent, and accountability within artistic creative practices in regards to this new technology.
        
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- - - - For example, the EU AI Act is said to be the world's first comprehensive form of regulation in regards to AI. This is good because it now enforces transparency and risk classifications for AI systems, which gives us a chance to stop more harmful AI from entering the market.
      - Canada has also proposed the AIDA, known as the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, which is described as: "The AIDA represents an important milestone in implementing the Digital Charter and ensuring that Canadians can trust the digital technologies that they use every day. The design, development, and use of AI systems must be safe, and must respect the values of Canadians.
        The framework proposed in the AIDA is the first step towards a new regulatory system designed to guide AI innovation in a positive direction, and to encourage the responsible adoption of AI technologies by Canadians and Canadian businesses. The Government intends to build on this framework through an open and transparent regulatory development process. Consultations would be organized to gather input from a variety of stakeholders across Canada to ensure that the regulations achieve outcomes aligned with Canadian values." (Government of Canada, 2025)
      - The idea here is that this kind of resistance allows for the positive reshaping of laws, which can lead to the shaping of AI systems in a way that will better serve humanity and not these companies' interests solely
      - "Current laws are structured in ways that enable tech companies to evade responsibility for their actions and decisions, allowing companies to profit from surveillance, data extraction, and opaque, automated decision-making without accountability. Regulatory proposals aim to hold companies and the government accountable for the impacts of their practices and decisions." (Milner, Traub, 2021)
    - - Education and Awareness
        
        Education and awareness on this topic will encourage our societies to question and think for themselves, which will transform us from passive consumers, which is what the power structures want of us, into informed participants who can demand and even change technology to be better shaped by us rather than being worsened by our technology.
        
        Further improving our digital literacy through workshops provides us with real experience/context, which is important in resisting the harms of AI as well. These workshops can teach people truly how AI works, how to spot harmful content generated by AI, which ultimately will show how to preserve human thinking from machine thinking.
        
        So far on this matter, public campaigns where compiled resources are put together to expose AI's biases, data stealing, and outputs of misinformation provide key contexts to allow people to recognize and question AI directly and individually, which is super important.
        
        Education and awareness in this case may be the best form of activism to resist the dangers of AI on our society's today