Turning AI into your Creative Partner:
Spark Curiosity and Earn Attention by Moving Beyond Persuasion
“AI Is a Partner not a Replacement” Declan Dunn
The AI Optimist Podcast
Why Creative Co-Creation Matters Now
While the industry debates copyright and regulation, creative people are quietly revolutionizing how we work with AI. They’re not letting AI do all the work, and they’re not afraid of it either.
They’re finding the sweet spot where human creativity and AI capability create something neither could achieve alone.
This is where the real change happens—not in boardrooms or research labs, but in the hands of creators who understand that small, intentional steps with AI beat trying to automate everything.
Humble Creative Machines: Creating AI to Elevate You (Instead of Replacing You)
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As AI Hype dissolves into mainstream cringe, it’s easy to forget that the gems are found below the surface jargon and PR blather. Like Maya Ackerman, founder and CEO of WaveAI since 2017, helping people write lyrics and make music without breaking the rules. Or stealing other’s music! Creating emotional connections, inspiring discovery, AI designed […]
Zero Sum AI Game? Everyone Loses When Artists vs Engineers Make AI Dumber
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When Heart Meets Code: Rediscovering Creativity in the Age of AI Explain AI to me like I’m a 5-year-old, she said. I was doing the research, looking at different AI hot takes from all kinds of sources with differing degrees of credibility. (And I knew there are better ways to do this, like Humble […]
Fear and Loathing in the Cult of AI: 3 Steps to Waking from the Subtle Matrix
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We were somewhere around Redwood City on the edge of the metaverse when the drugs began to take hold. Not the good kind of drugs. The algorithmic kind. The kind making you believe your smartphone loves you more than anyone ever did. And AI is the future, everyone else is the past. It starts with […]
The Long Game: How can AI make us more human?
Maya Ackerman’s first principle, laid out in her upcoming book “Creative Machines”:
“The greatest impact creative machines can have is to elevate human creativity.”
This isn’t about making AI less powerful. It’s about designing that power to serve human thriving instead of human replacement.
“How can AI make us more human?
How can it help us connect deeper with our emotions, connect more deeply with each other, and connect more deeply with our creative capabilities?”
The answer lies in what she calls “humble creative machines.”
AI systems built to put humans in charge, to adapt to users rather than forcing users to adapt to them.
When James Morgan created his Italian aria, he wasn’t just making music. He was proving that the impossible becomes possible when technology is designed with the right intent from the ground up.
While everyone else is building roulette wheels, Maya and the team at WaveAI is building something different: tools that make you more creative, not more dependent.
And in a world racing toward AI that does everything for us, maybe that’s exactly what we need.
“I am extremely optimistic that superintelligence will help humanity accelerate our pace of progress,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Listen to tech bros talk about ASI and try not to hear religious fervor:
“AI will solve all human problems!”
“It will transcend human limitations!”
“We must prepare for the AI singularity!”
And maybe in the end it will replace you, and destroy you, but you already lost your job, who cares?
The research shows cults create “pseudospiritual authority” where leaders claim “exclusive access to divine knowledge.”
Replace “divine” with “artificial super intelligence” and you’ve got the exact same playbook.
Pay with attention, cash, or support – nobody rides for free.
Looking into the Uncomfortable Mirror with the AI Drug of Inevitable Control
Our psychological vulnerabilities aren’t being exploited to control us; they’re being monetized to sell us back to ourselves.
Zuckerberg’s personal superintelligence vision just makes you a better ad unit, nothing to do with being a better person.
The weird part? We’re paying for the privilege. It’s like joining a cult that charges membership fees and somehow convincing yourself you’re getting a good deal.
3 Steps to Recover from the AI Cult Trap
The research shows recovery requires rebuilding critical thinking and independent decision-making. So here’s your digital detox program:
Step 1: Your Reality Check
When did you last change your mind about something important based on information that challenges your beliefs?
If you can’t remember, congratulations. You’re living in an AI cult compound. Even if you’re anti-AI, and pro humanity.
It doesn’t matter if you think different, and act the same.
Step 2: The Dependency Test
Could you function for a week without AI, without algo’d recommendations?
If that sounds terrifying, you might be more dependent and controlled than you think.
Like Dylan Sang, “He who is not busy being born is busy dying”
Dang, maybe I am like a boomer complaining.
Step 3: The AI as God Test
Do you treat AI companies with the skepticism you’d give any other corporation, or do you grant them special authority because they claim to be building the future?
If it’s the latter, you’re worshipping at the Church of Artificial Intelligence.
And if you only give them skepticism, like the Anti AI creators, you’ve given up participating. You’re on the sidelines.
Get off social media and go out to the real world. Often where there’s no algorithms and AI, there’s discussion.
The Way Forward: Taking Advantage Before Being Taken Advantage Of
The best way to take advantage of AI is to not be taken advantage of by it.
China builds AI like infrastructure because they see it as a tool. America builds AI like a religion because we’ve forgotten the difference between utility and worship.
The future isn’t about better AI. It’s about better humans who can’t be easily algorithmically manipulated into believing their smartphone notifications are more important than actual human connection. Than Human creativity.
The real question isn’t whether AI will take over. The real question is: Why did we hand over control to begin with?