Herbert Midgley's Blog: AI and Creativity

AI and Creativity

AI and Creativity
by Herbert Midgley
12-31-2025

Today, people are complaining about artificial intelligence entering filmmaking. They think you can just put in a prompt, and it makes a complete movie in a matter of seconds. That is far from reality. My experience with artificial intelligence for creative purposes over the last few years has shown that it is just another tool. It is not much different from using a digital camera versus a film camera. Both are tools. Both can achieve different kinds of creativity in art.

People complain that AI is going to put people out of work in creative fields, as well as other industries. And that may happen. Like any other technology that has developed, certain jobs are replaced while other jobs are created. The same filmmakers who are loudly against any type of AI use in cinema are probably using a digital video camera instead of actual film stock. The shift from film to digital had similar complaints in the past. “How can you be a filmmaker if you do not actually use film stock?” “Digital is not film.” These were objections from people who love 35 mm film and did not want the ease of digital photography to take over their field. With newer digital photography and filmmaking cameras, many creative individuals were able to create films. Many also feared this technology would put people out of work.

And it was true. Those who were highly skilled at editing on a Steenbeck film editing machine had to learn how to edit on a computer, or they found other work. This was also true for those who developed film, and for places that sold film supplies. Paying for film stock, the developing process, using a second system for audio, and producing a final print would make filmmaking cost-prohibitive for independent filmmakers today. The fact that you can shoot a feature film or a short film on your smartphone shows that technology allows more people to get into the creative aspects than before.

Using artificial intelligence, I have tried many different AI software solutions. These large language models all work differently, and the cost ranges from free to expensive. As stated earlier, you cannot just put in a prompt and make a film. A filmmaker has to use these tools to figure out what they can actually make. This is time-consuming, frustrating, and a learning process, just like when we went from film to digital.

One of the biggest arguments people have against using AI for any purpose is that it uses a lot of water for data centers. For AI servers to function, they use a lot of electricity and other resources. Any computer system needs cooling, especially as systems scale up. The use of AI has grown tremendously over the last few years since it was released to the public. It is true that the resources required are large, with estimates placing the global water footprint of AI between 82 and 203 billion gallons annually.¹

That number is roughly equivalent to the 118 billion gallons of bottled water consumed globally each year.² However, even that pales in comparison to agriculture, which accounts for about 70% of global freshwater usage and often wastes up to 40% of it through inefficient irrigation.³ Before we condemn the roughly 17 ounces of water used for a single AI query, we should consider the 4,000 gallons required to produce just 2.2 pounds of beef.⁴ In fact, the 600 gallons needed for a single hamburger is enough to cover about 5,000 AI queries.⁴ Even a simple cotton T-shirt requires over 700 gallons to create, which shows that mass production of any kind demands significant water resources.⁵

Like any previous technology, technology tends to get smaller, faster, and more efficient every 18 months. I am sure the same thing will happen with these artificial intelligence data centers because it makes them more effective for those companies as well. It is in the best financial interest of these tech companies to make their centers more efficient. We will solve these hurdles without running out of clean water or food, just as we have adapted to the energy needs of previous industrial and technology shifts.⁶

Creativity is the most important part of making films, or any creative process. If you are creative, you can use any tool to make something happen. If you are an independent filmmaker and you want to make an explosion or some type of large CGI that only the big film companies could do, your options can expand with these tools. Artificial intelligence can help you make cartoons and animation more easily than using traditional animation software with a large learning curve.

Just because someone is an expert with a tool used in the past does not mean someone in the future should not be able to use new technologies. This argument is already moot because large language models are integrated into many things we use, including word processors, grammar checkers, and search engines. Most filmmakers using modern tools are likely using some type of AI, directly or indirectly, to make their work. AI is just another tool that a filmmaker can use, like a camera, lights, sound gear, editing software, or screenwriting software. The future is bright for those who are creative and embrace current technology. You cannot go back in time. If we did, we would all be writing scripts longhand and spending a large budget to make a five-minute film.

I personally love using digital cameras, and I love using lenses that were used on old film cameras. There is a certain look you get from glass that you do not get from a built-in lens. However, shooting a film on your iPhone with built-in depth of field looks fantastic, and it is fast and efficient. I know this software lens effect uses math to emulate depth of field rather than a film lens. It looks fine, so audiences are not going to care. And when you get right down to it, whether it is film, music, writing, or anything at all, I do not think the masses will care as long as they are entertained. If the story moves them, they will not mind if the background blur was generated by a microchip or a piece of glass.

We are still at the beginning of using artificial intelligence for creativity. AI has already been used in film, music, and writing, and that is going to continue. Right now, artificial intelligence is the worst it is ever going to be. It is going to get better every day. This technology improves because it learns from what people make and share. Even if there is some type of government regulation in one country, if it is not universal, those who are able to use AI in their creative work are going to have an advantage over those who cannot use it.

When you get right down to it, whether it is creativity or business, money is the bottom line. In the film business or the music business, the business side is an important part of earning money. Back in the old days with vinyl, cassettes, or CDs, people bought physical media. Today, you can stream everything. The money artists get is less than it was in the old days, but streaming allows more people to enter the space. The same thing is true with filmmaking. Artists have always had to find new ways to earn income when new technologies arrived. When cinema first appeared, people thought live theatre would end. When phonograph records came around, people thought live concert performances would end. When synthesizers and sampling were used in recordings, many performers thought that was the end of their gig, but it was not.⁷ More opportunities appeared in different areas, and at some point, the past was integrated with new technologies.⁸

Ultimately, if you do not like “AI slop,” that is your choice. Do not watch it. There are many things I do not watch that are professionally made. Usually, I give it a few minutes. If I like it, I continue to watch. If I do not, I stop. That is one reason it is great to have so many options today for entertainment.⁹

At some point, with these AI videos, if it reaches you in some way, maybe that is the important part of creativity. If you can elicit emotion or move someone one way or the other, that matters. So do not associate AI creativity with “AI art” as if it is fundamentally different. It is no different than using any other kind of digital technology to create something. No one today would disregard a screenplay written on a computer versus a typewriter.

I would much rather write a screenplay on my laptop with screenwriting software than break out a manual typewriter or write it out longhand. In the old days, I used to score music and write all the parts out by hand, and my hand would get so tired that it would take days to complete. It took forever to write out parts even for a small string quartet, much less a big band or symphony orchestra. Today, with modern music notation software, I put the score in and extract the parts in a matter of moments. Did music get worse when Mozart or Beethoven hired copyists to transcribe their scores? No. AI does the same for filmmaking, photography, music, and writing. It saves us from “hand fatigue” so we can focus on the ideas. It makes it more efficient for me to create. The same ease happened when MIDI technology developed. This led to the convenience of recording any instrument on a laptop anywhere in the world. I can record a beat at any time with any sound I want.

Artificial intelligence can be a great tool for filmmaking, music, writing, photography, and many other parts of creativity. Right now, you can tell if something is generated by AI most of the time. As time goes on, it is going to be less easy to identify AI. Hopefully, you realize that any video you see could be fake, which should make you question what you see or hear from this point on. Over time, it is going to get harder and harder to tell. The same thing has happened with graphic design.

People pretend graphic design used to be pure and technology ruined it. Graphic design was never separate from technology.¹⁰ It has always been built on tools. Printing presses, phototypesetting, paste-up boards, rubylith, airbrushes, scanners, and software all shaped what designers could do. Every era had tools that made some jobs easier and made others obsolete. In the old days, people did layout by hand, literally cutting and pasting. If we still made magazines that way, an issue would cost an outrageous amount. Technology made it cheaper and faster. That did not destroy creativity. It changed the workflow. Now we can use creativity in new and different ways. Personally, I am looking forward to the future of these large language models and artificial intelligence in creative work.

I also think people need to be honest about job changes. In 2025, people have been laid off in tech because AI can do parts of their jobs more efficiently.¹¹ Wall Street rewards companies that reduce their workforce, which can lead the company to be more profitable.¹² I predict more industries will do the same thing in 2026. If the company thrives financially, they will call it the right decision. If it does not work, they will hire people back. That is how business thinks. It is not personal. It is money. I do not believe AI will erase every job. It will change jobs. Just like word processors reduced secretary pools down to a few people. The work did not disappear. The workflow changed. You cannot stop the future. Once the technology is out, people are going to use it. If they can save money, they will use it. This is true in business and in the entertainment business.

For all those who are against AI and think you can stop it, you are wrong. When personal computers arrived in the 1980s, you could not stop it. When the internet arrived in the 1990s, you could not stop it. When cell phone technology took off in the 2000s, you could not stop that either. Now we cannot live without these tools in our personal and work lives.¹³

People who misunderstand how technology works often misunderstand how creative individuals use AI. A lot of the anti-AI mindset comes from misunderstanding what the tools actually do. They think it is magic. It is not. It is software. You still need a human with taste, discipline, and a clear point of view. That is true with a pencil and paper. It is also true with AI.

This is the future. Fifty years from now, people will not think twice about using AI for creativity, business, and daily life. It will be how things are done. People will use it the way we use search engines and smartphones today. This technology is already changing, and we do not know how it is going to turn out years from now, in the same way nobody truly predicted what the internet would become.

So, before you dismiss everything as “AI slop,” give it a chance. If it reaches you, that matters. If it does not, turn it off. You are allowed to choose what you watch. But do not pretend you can stop the technology. You cannot. The only real choice is whether you learn to use it and use it to push your creativity further. If you do not, you will get left behind.

May you live in interesting times. We really do. I am looking forward to the future of using these tools. The future will be something we cannot imagine!

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