When GenAI Feels More Creative Than Me

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It feels like every mornings I wake up to news of another “breakthrough” in generative AI. Today, it’s a realtime video generator using some new AI model I’ve never heard about. Yesterday, it was a tool to render an entire user interface better than I could ever whip up. And if I’m being honest, there’s a voice in the back of my mind … sometimes loud, sometimes barely a whisper … that asks, “What does it mean if a machine can be more creative than me?” For someone like me who lives in the world of creativity, design, and technology, it’s a disorienting, and honestly, an exhilarating feeling all at once.

But then I remember a moment from years ago. I was feeling worn down — one of those stretches where every project felt stuck. On my desk sat a simple toy train that would chug along a figure-eight track, forever looping, always getting stuck at the sharpest bends. Yet every time, it found a way to break free, sometimes by sheer force, sometimes by luck. I kept that train because it reminded me of myself: getting stuck, wrestling with a problem, but eventually finding a way forward. I’d like to think that’s what creativity is. It’s not always about having wild ideas on tap. Sometimes it’s just about showing up, getting stuck, and then getting unstuck.

Now, I see GenAI turning the “average imagination” into a kind of superpower. For folks who say, “I’m…