The Writegeist Review // V. 01 // 2.2.25
Make art human again, a year without internet, the Vatican's warnings on AI
Welcome to the first edition of The Writegeist Report, your weekly roundup on the latest news in culture & creativity—cheeky commentary included.
1. AI? “It’s going to be shit for anyone who isn’t a thief.”
Is artificial intelligence a tool or a thief?
This past week, New York Times bestseller Matt Haig made his position suuuuper clear…
Haig posted a “make art human again” image on instagram with this boldly stated, to say the least, caption:
A lot of people are trying to convince us that AI is going to be good for creatives.
Nah.
It’s going to be shit. It’s going to be shit for anyone who isn’t a thief. The whole idea is theft. AI learns to create things by taking things for free.
A new publisher will publish 8000 books this year using AI by charging would-be authors up to five grand for them to be edited and distributed with AI.
Visual artists too are being fucked over. Magazines and books have had AI cover designs. Someone in-house can just type some instructions and in a few seconds a freelance artist loses their job. (Why the hell are people STILL thinking immigrants are taking their jobs when it is AI? Why is no one out on a rally to stop the job market shrinking further?)
Meanwhile the music industry apparently will lose a quarter of its income in the next four years to AI.
And for what? For tech bros and their shareholders? Do we need more of that?
Remember the average artist on Spotify makes $0.003 every time their song is played. Meanwhile the Spotify CEO gets $345 million a year. That is more than double Bruno Mars’ (Spotify’s number one artist) entire net worth.
I am quite old now. So I no longer have to be youthful and optimistic. I am old enough to realise that technology very often seems better for five seconds but makes things worse in the long run. Phones and Ticketmaster have ruined nightclubs and concerts. Cassettes and CDs were meant to be better than vinyl and they weren’t and now gen z are back buying vinyl again. And even on the production side no tech has made music sound any better produced than, say Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night album.
I heard someone joke that the music industry wants AI artists because then they can’t get cancelled.
I don’t want to hear an AI faking someone’s music. I want the real thing. I want the messy howls and whimpers of a real human creature.
The whole point of art is that it articulates human experience. It stops being art if it is not experience. And until an AI feels pain or gets addicted or falls in love or chops off its ear it isn’t art.
In the meantime can we make sure we pay real artists?
Amen, brother!
Undervaluing creativity and creatives is nothing new; indeed, it’s a staple in modern society. But outsourcing creativity to robots is an all-out attack on the heart and soul of humanity—and maybe even God, as many argue creativity is divinity itself.
Either way, it is clear to me that the most sensitive among us, the most creative, the most connected to original intelligence, are the ones who will suffer most from the AI explosion—both financially and in spirit.
It was hard enough pre-AI to make a viable living as a full-time creative—and I say that as someone who’s done it. The grunt writing jobs I had as a young twenty-something—the ones that actually taught me how to write better and better with every mundane task—will now be outsourced to chatGPT or DeepSeek or whatever new artificial dung that comes next.
This essential part of becoming a writer/artist/creative worthy of being heard beyond mundane tasks will be stolen from the coming generations. How will they learn the ropes, climb the ladder, grow from green to seasoned? Certainly not in college! I mourn for the baby creatives who dream of making a living off their art; their generation has the biggest handicap the world has ever seen.
Interested in this topic? Dive deeper: The Harm & Hypocrisy of AI Art
2. Author August Lamm announces she will move to Paris and live computer- and internet-free for a year
Having downgraded (but really upgraded) to a “dumbphone” two years ago, writer, painter, and anti-tech activist August Lamm has just announced a new project that is bound to result in a tiny anachronistic revolution, not to mention a shoo-in future book deal.
Here is her very intriguing post that has gone viral:
This spring, I will sell my laptop, move to a foreign city (Paris), and attempt to build a new life there without the use of the internet. Once a week, I will go to the library to check email and share my writing. Otherwise, I will rely solely on the postal service and a 2002 dumb phone. The question: is it possible to find a home, community, and love without the internet? Let’s find out.
LET’S find out! Gotta say, I’m jealous I didn’t think of this one myself. As I live in Mallorca, Spain, maybe I’ll write her a snail-mail letter proposing that I pop over on the ferry to interview her in person at an underground French salon, like they did in the olden days. How dreamy!
Interested in this topic? Dive deeper: I Gave Up My Smartphone for a Dumbphone. You Can, Too.
3. Vatican warns of AI dangers
The Vatican just dropped a holy mic on the AI industry. In their January 28th doctrinal note, titled “Antiqua et Nova” (“Ancient and New”), they’re throwing up some serious red flags about the dark side of tech—from robot-driven worker exploitation to screwing up children’s social and cognitive development, autonomous weapons straight out of a dystopian thriller (I’m thinking the weird robot dogs, but with guns?), and a tsunami of deepfake nonsense flooding our news feeds.
Though extremely verbose, it’s quite the fiery read that I highly recommend—for atheists and theists alike! The short version? Keep AI in its lane—it’s meant to be a helpful sidekick, not a hostile takeover artist. AI must serve humanity, not rule it.
The doctrinal note concludes:
“A further point to consider is the call, prompted by the appearance of AI on the world stage, for a renewed appreciation of all that is human. Years ago, the French Catholic author Georges Bernanos warned that “the danger is not in the multiplication of machines, but in the ever-increasing number of men accustomed from their childhood to desire only what machines can give.” This challenge is as true today as it was then … AI should be used only as a tool to complement human intelligence rather than replace its richness.”
Well, well, well. It’s not everyday I agree with the Vatican, but here we (mostly) are! I still question the intent behind this declaration: does it stem from a genuine concern for humanity or the battle to control humanity, which is currently in a time of serious fumble?
Interested in this topic? Dive deeper: What does the Vatican know about A.I.? A lot, actually.
A closing poem, written by a real human, because that’s how we do around here
Joy by Carl Sandburg
Let a joy keep you.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen them
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere—
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.