The Future Belongs to Human Voices

AI has been force-fed to us these last few years, but human voices are not dead.

Let's get it straight: the last few years have not been kind to creative minds. The main reason? One acronym: AI. Or rather, how it's been used and exploited. 

Ever since the first Large Language Model (LLM) emerged to the public in 2022, a massive craze has flooded corporate boards about the potential benefits to be gained. Not creatively, not in efficiency, but rather in cost-cutting.

The AI surge in content creation, from writing to videos and graphic design, has led to massive layoffs in several creative fields, including a Media Monitoring company that laid off its entire staff, and now publishes AI-generated reporting.

The freelancing world has also suffered a toll. Most gigs popping up online are focused on training internal AI machines to take the jobs we used to proudly do with our neurotic minds.

Since its emergence, many other models have come to life, and they've all evolved to create more and more sophisticated content, from pictures to videos—always trying to blur the line between fiction and reality.

But did they find their audience? Do people prefer artificial content over human creation? Not really.

The Lack of Ethics Behind AI

At first, there seemed to be a mass enthusiasm about the technology, especially when it came to writing. Many people felt relieved to stop writing overly polite emails and empty-souled cover letters (and if I must confess, I can’t disagree with the use of AI in the latter, especially since I consider them to be an unnecessary hypocrisy).

Don't get me wrong, AI has probably really interesting uses. Administrative tasks, accessibility tools, medical research breakthroughs… these are areas where AI has the potential to help us. But when corporations try to use it to replace the very thing that makes us human—our ability to connect through shared emotional experience—that's where the line needs to be drawn.

Over the years, the mood has shifted. Many professionals vocally opposed the use of AI to replace them, the loudest being the screenwriters of the WGA and the actors of SAG-AFTRA during the double strike of 2023 in Hollywood. Many others have followed their path and taken a strong stand on AI content in their work and policies.

Ethical problems quickly arose regarding the adoption of AI. When it comes to content-generation, the blatant use of stolen intellectual properties has sparked fierce opposition and led to legal actions by artists and authors. The clumsy defense of some AI leaders, claiming that paying the use of stolen intellectual properties would lead to the "end" of AI race, hasn't help them win public sympathy.

On top of this, you have the environmental damage generated in the background by its infrastructure—from the exploitation of rare earths to the ever-growing need for cooling water and the booming electricity prices for the population.

And now, AI-generated content is increasingly visible and criticized on the internet. Just take a look at how the commercials for a famous fast-food franchise were mocked for their questionable visuals. On the opposite side, a French supermarket chain made headlines by openly supporting human artists with their heartwarming spot that crossed digital borders. 

Stories Are What Make Us Human

Storytelling is the most powerful socialization asset we own. It's the only bonding form unique to humans. For millennia, every technological progress has been made to facilitate the way we tell stories and share them. We went from telling stories around a fire to drawing them on walls, writing them down on paper, printing them… and now we're able to share them instantly with everyone in the world, thanks to the little computers in our pockets.

What makes stories uniquely human is how much of our personal experiences we put in them, and how relatable they are to the audience. Despite having individual backgrounds, we share the same universal emotions: the fear of not belonging at a new school, the struggle of meeting deadlines at work, the changing relationships with our relatives as we grow up, or finding the love of our life — all deeply personal experiences with communal echo.

We don't just love stories for the plots or the stunning visuals. We love them because they reflect our humanity back at us. And only humans are able to do that.

This is why human storytelling matters so much. This is why we need to cherish it rather than write it off.

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