 What does being a creator really mean? Are we just making pretty pictures or are we something more? In my eyes, we're storytellers, using every tool we can to create a lasting impact on our audience. From way back, we've used stories to entertain and to help us understand the world. It's the stories about real people's experiences that really hit home, whether that's through a book, a painting, a song, or even a video. So I want to share my own story in a time when stories matter most. It's about my journey with AI as a creator and why it can never replace the soul of our work. Are human stories. I've been making videos for over a decade and I've seen new cameras come, software updates go, but they've always just been tools to make storytelling easier. Then, out of nowhere, AI tools started making waves in the creative world. I figured it would just be another trend that would end up in the tech graveyard like 3D TVs. But because there were promising tools from editing your videos for you to even having AI avatars reading your scripts, I felt the pressure to not be left behind. My immediate response was to fight against that pressure. I had enough on my plate to learn and I was in this phase where I really wanted to improve my storytelling. And to be honest, sometimes I wasn't sure if I was on Instagram or an AI portrait gallery, and I just felt burnt out with this whole AI wave. So I chose to focus on my own path and what I believed to be important to me as a creator. But several weeks passed and eventually months. The buzz about AI didn't quiet down. Instead, it grew louder. Even creators I looked up to were adopting AI into the creative process. I saw podcasts being edited by themselves and Instagram creators producing videos that would have taken a small army of VFX artists to achieve. That was when the pressure I felt turned into excitement. There were so many AI tools that could streamline my video creating workflow. But it was generative AI, specifically stable diffusion that really caught my interest. Stable diffusion lets you turn text into images and even images into images, so it looked like it would give me the most control. This was really important because directing and refining the output is what makes human involvement essential. So I set myself a challenge to make a short film that conveys how the power of music can transport us into another world. I quickly saw that this challenge was bigger than I thought. As a video creator, I know nothing about coding. What in the world is a gift? Isn't Python just a snake? Following tutorial after tutorial felt like following a cooking recipe without knowing how any of the ingredients taste. I had to learn a lot of new things just to start my idea. But I kept pushing sliders around and built confidence with each test image I would generate. Eventually I felt ready to finally start shooting. You know that good feeling when you play back your footage and everything looks perfect? Maybe you nailed focus or you got the lighting just right. That was how I felt putting together a rough cut. Imagining the transformation that AI would bring to the raw footage. Unfortunately, I only got to the easy part. Most videos that you watch play 24 frames per second. Now my plan was to make each frame of my video into an animation using AI. Sounds easy, right? It was anything but easy. I ran into problems left and right. Why was there so much flickering? Why was I running out of memory? Why did my face turn into silly putty? 90% of my creative process became troubleshooting and looking up Reddit threads for answers. Each shot took hours to export. And if something went wrong, I had to start all over again. It felt like learning how to use a camera again for the very first time and finding out all your shots were too noisy because you forgot what ISO meant. But just like completing a marathon or solving a Rubik's Cube for the very first time, your test of patience is always rewarded. The video I imagined in my head was playing right in front of me. I didn't need to hire any animators or computer programmers. This feeling of accomplishment wasn't just from creating something unique and personal. It was knowing how AI made up for my limited skill and empowered me to tell a story that would have been impossible just a couple months ago. Since completing that project, I haven't used stable diffusion again. Now, it isn't because I've rejected AI, but rather that it's only one tool out of many that I can pull out for the right job. Just like how I update my camera or editing software, I update my tools. But here's the thing about tools. They can't substitute for human stories. My short film wasn't spit out by an AI algorithm. It was inspired by my life journey, from the impact that music had on me, my appreciation for classical art, and the countless hours I spent learning to play the piano. Our desire to creatively express ourselves and be inspired is something that AI just can't grasp. But what AI can do is help us tell better stories, and that is such an important distinction. And what about the personal story I just shared with you about making the short film? The anxiety of feeling left behind, the frustration of watching endless tutorials, the feeling of success when I finally completed the short film. Can AI understand these emotions? I believe that's our gift as humans and how we bring depth and richness to our stories. And what about the beauty of our imperfections? The humanity of our struggles and mistakes? AI is always trying to seek optimization and perfection, so it can never tell stories that relate to us in the same way human stories will. Take Usain Bolt, for example. People cheer for him not just because he runs fast. It's because he can run fast while being born with scoliosis, suffering several injuries in his career, and overcoming doubts. It's your conscience speaking. Don't do it. Stop running. It's this shared humanity that makes us cheer for him and for others like him. This is the power of stories about us made by us and shared with us. Even if AI can generate incredible music and art, when there's no story behind the song or painting, we can't deeply connect with it. AI is all around us and already helps creators tell their stories better and more efficiently. For example, here at Artlist, you can already use AI-powered tools such as our search engine that lets you find footage by typing exactly the way you think. What comes up is amazing work filmed by real artists. Even their sound effects suggestion feature is AI-powered. Ensuring a perfect match with your footage. Although we've embraced AI-powered tools to streamline your search experience, these high-quality assets are always created by real people. So check out Artlist for everything you need to tell your best stories. Also, make sure to subscribe to the channel if you want more videos to help empower you as a creator. To be a creator, it doesn't matter what you use, as long as we remain the heart of the narrative. So, what's the human story that you want to tell?