Last week I shared some thoughts on the rapid development of AI tools and how creatives should respond: embrace them to supercharge your unique skillset.

After posting, I went back and forth on whether I had betrayed the purpose of RP WEEKLY, which is meant to celebrate the human craft that rejects automation and - on the surface - much of what these latest tools appear to represent.

In the case of deeply creative arts like songwriting and filmmaking (examples I used last week), the magic is in the soul, the story, and the struggle. Of course talent is required (and often acquired through struggle), but these elements elevate talent.

As far as I can tell, AI greatly reduces the struggle to complete certain tasks/skills, but can't touch the soul or the story. Anyone paying attention can sniff out the BS. AI remixed 50 Cent songs are fun and sharable, but they fade away. Same with AI videos. They are novel and shockingly good, but they rip off IP that has been crafted and curated over years to earn emotional resonance.

In my little corner of the internet, many are opining over the meaning of "craft", "taste", "slop", and many other words used to decipher what is good for the culture. Because culture is changing again - and perhaps more rapidly than ever before.

This cultural shift feels different and (as Will Manidis wrote) it's because the power and scale of the disruption is prioritized over true purpose. Said differently: this movement lacks soul.

On one hand, I'm all for this soulless tech to replace soulless work. We're in a place where we should want more for ourselves than white-collar cubicle work. I'm stoked for everyone who gets 3 hours of their day back by saying: "Claude - act as a McKinsey consultant and make me a deck from this data report…"

The problem though, is many have now found meaning and attributed their worth to this "work." When it's stripped from us…where do we turn? "Who are you when the thing you did is no longer needed?"

AI is exposing this question, and it is an uncomfortable one that's not being appropriately answered.

We are all now confronted with the reality that we must reconsider what it means to live a purpose-driven life.

I'd argue the creatives have an edge here. Not because they're insulated from disruption, but because they can't not answer that question. Struggle and soul is the reason they do what they do.

This moment is forcing everyone to ask the question that artists eternally wrestle with.

That might be the most human thing about it.

RP WEEKLY!!!!!