The growing premium of originality

Scott Belsky on the rising opportunity for unique creative expression

Illustrations by Joslyn Reid
An abstract geometric illustration composed of brightly colored hanging shapes in yellow, green, red, black, and light blue. The suspended forms overlap to create a layered, mobile-like cubist sculpture of a hand with an eye at the center.
Today we call it slop, but the idea of quickly creating “replays” of past work, and riffs on other people’s content for clicks, isn’t new. The only difference now is that, in the AI era, it has never been easier to quickly recreate iconic scenes or rip iconic intellectual property and styles.

Of course, mimicry is nothing new. Most of the world has always favored emulation and recreation over the hardships of entirely original creative risk-taking. Look no further than the endless sequels that fill our theaters and recycled trends that permeate design, fashion, and practically every other field. But, as it becomes easier to generatively recreate almost anything, there is a growing demand among consumers and a rising opportunity for artists to make entirely original creative expression—creations that are a standard of deviation different from anything done before (and anything in the training data of AI!).

After all, remaking a masterpiece isn’t hard. Making a masterpiece is. As always, no past great work stays sacred or protected, especially as it becomes increasingly easy to reference or reproduce anything. But what does this mean for the demand side of entertainment? As our feeds fill with pirated IP violations and copycat scenes, what will we crave more of? In one word: Originality.

Originality is the primary ingredient of timeless creations

Catchy pop songs that spread fast through instant familiarity may become earworms but never become timeless. Sequels have built-in audiences but tend to produce more of the same. Think about mainstream timeless art, from Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” “The Nutcracker” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

As we seek originality, we will look for the humanity beneath. And one telltale sign is our flaws.

These iconic, wildly innovative pieces of IP became timeless through their sheer originality. As it becomes easier to make replays and copycats and the market floods, culture will favor originality more than ever before. Perhaps this will manifest itself through our growing hunger for weirdness; an increasing tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty when hearing or watching something entirely unfamiliar; the person who discovers something new or lesser known becoming a “cultural flex”?

Quality will carry a premium

As the “low hanging fruit” of any aspiring creator becomes pre-existing content and the styles and ideas of others, truly original work and creative decisions will carry a greater premium than ever. Why? Because we’ll be overwhelmed by copycats. Familiar characters and cloned directorial styles and scenes will fill our feeds. We may find some of it entertaining but also recognize it for what it is: slop. Again.

People are becoming much better at knowing when something isn’t made by humans. Just as the ubiquity of fast food didn’t threaten the business of fine cuisine (and arguably further distinguished it), consumers will crave more original high-quality storytelling. And much like the Michelin stars and famous chefs who curate and help distinguish quality, modern media and entertainment brands will play a similar role. The age-old challenge with originality is discovery. The new intellectual property must somehow break through the algorithms and escape the noise to find its audience—all while remaining economically viable. Evolving AI-powered tools may hurt or help, depending on how they’re used. They can be abused to rip styles and create exponentially more “unoriginal” content, or they can be used tactically to help craft wholly unique stories that wouldn’t have otherwise had a chance to get made and find their audience.

An abstract geometric illustration composed of brightly colored hanging shapes in yellow, green, red, black, and light blue. The suspended forms overlap to create a layered, mobile-like cubist sculpture of a face with rounded and organic forms.

My bet is that, even as digital chisels evolve to include AI features, the most successful original and high-quality creations will continue to be human crafted, infused with meaning from sentient emotion. As consumers grow tired of regurgitated content, demand for human-crafted originality will go up. As for the true artists, they’ll love the growing demand for originality. My friend and long-time editor Ed Albro shared the story of a Joni Mitchell live album where you can hear the audience calling to hear their favorite song. She responds, aptly, “Nobody ever said to Van Gogh, ‘Paint a Starry Night again, man!’”

We will crave originality in our pursuit of taste

While we tend to celebrate the ways AI will make humans less essential in so many aspects of work and daily life, I am most excited by the ways humans will become more important. Originality and taste are at the top of the list. The development of that taste, via input, is a key part of this development. Much like our pursuit of health requires a nutritious diet with less fast food, the pursuit of taste will require consumption of original ideas and stories.

I anticipate more time and energy spent on curation and culturally enriching consumption over the years ahead. New products that deliver carefully curated, original cultural items that offer a sharp contrast amidst a sea of sameness. Our identity formation will increasingly favor original inputs in the form of unique experiences, wildly original and unfamiliar (a.k.a. “weird”) content, and eccentricity in our social circles.

How will we navigate this new world with an appetite for originality?

Origin stories and flaws as evidence of authenticity

If art ultimately gains value through its storytelling and provenance, then any digital or physical artifact is best presented alongside the idea of its creation. Iconic advertising from brands like Apple is increasingly accompanied by behind-the-scenes footage. The reason, of course, is fortification of the brand message via the stories and the artifacts of humanity in the narrative (the small remnants of human emotion and whims, the mistakes, the dust, the subtle nods).

As it becomes easier to generatively recreate almost anything, there is a growing demand among consumers and a rising opportunity for artists to make entirely original creative expression—creations that are a standard of deviation different from anything done before.

As we seek originality, we will look for the humanity beneath. And one telltale sign is our flaws. We should expect to see deliberate artifacts of humanness in the art, films, and stories we engage with as a subtle nod to the people and struggle behind the work.

I am so excited about new technology and the tremendous value and opportunity it brings to artists and all of humanity. But all this new power also raises the bar for what we are capable of, and the raw creativity we must tap to bring more originality to a world that needs it more than ever.