Today, on the anniversary of Ozzy Osbourne’s passing, a reflection he shared on music and human craft feels strikingly relevant to artists and creatives navigating the rapid rise of AI in their industries.
"Rock music is not meant to be perfect," Ozzy noted in a 2011 interview with The Guardian, reflecting on classic analog recording sessions. "[Guitarist] Randy Rhoads loved hearing his fingers slide up and down the strings. Nowadays everyone irons the fucking air, it's all about technology."
Creatives can learn from this. While AI can produce work that is technically flawless, or get you ten times the amount of ideas you might have had time to think of without tech, that isn't always where human creativity flourishes – the small imperfections and physical processes are often where the character lives.
This leads to an important takeaway for modern creatives. While we might want to automate as much of our workflow as possible to save time or smooth out our output, what we risk losing are the subtle flaws and inconsistencies that appear throughout the process – these are the places in the workflow where new ideas and distinct personalities take shape.
I've heard panels of AI enthusiasts talk about automatically reaching for automation at every stage because their brains have already grown to rely on it They discussed how they have to mindfully pull themselves back and use their own skills to work through ideas.
While Ozzy was speaking about guitar strings and studio polish, every creative discipline can take note. There is ease and convenience in bringing automated tools into your process, but leaving breathing room for human texture and friction will remain essential to any creative process.
Read here how AI remains divisive amongst creatives. And explore the newest tech in our AI in Focus series.
