Mark Cuban says AI can't completely automate the creative process
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for WIRED
- Mark Cuban told BI that key parts of the creative process are human instinct and decision-making.
- AI is a particularly efficient time-saver and will allow the "best" to become "better," he said.
- Cuban recently said on the "YMH" podcast that real people still need to be involved in making art.
For Mark Cuban, parts of storytelling are intrinsically human.
"AI can propose a million things in a second, but then somebody's got to go through and decide what they're going to put their money into," Cuban said on an episode of the "YMH" podcast.
Creatives frequently express concerns that companies will use AI to cut human beings out of the production process in an effort to cut costs. Actors are already having to field jobs that involve feeding into the very AI that could one day be used to replicate their skills.
The Writers Guild of America, along with the actors' union SAG-AFTRA, brought Hollywood to a screeching halt in 2023 when they issued a joint strike, in part to firm up protections for their members against the "existential threat" of artificial intelligence.
Despite concerns, Cuban believes that AI alone is not enough to churn out viable work.
"AI is not going to, you know, hit your bank account and produce a movie for you, produce a podcast or whatever," Cuban said on the podcast.
In an email follow-up conversation on the topic with Business Insider, Cuban said that, for all its prowess, AI shouldn't have the final word in the creative process.
"I think AI is just one more creative tool," Cuban told BI. "It's like a writing or creative partner, but not a decision-maker."
Cuban believes the success of a creative product often hinges on gut instinct, which can't be replicated by a machine.
"There is a reason why some people have hit after hit, regardless of whether it's music, books, poetry, movies, TV," Cuban wrote. "They have a feel for what the audience wants at that point in time."
If companies do use AI to try and short-cut their way to blockbuster hits, it won't be unlike their attempts to reverse-engineer success via metrics, Cuban wrote. He expects the former to fail, just as the latter did.
"I've seen companies that use analytics to determine what a studio or label should release, fail time after time," Cuban wrote. "That's the same as using AI to replace everyone. It may be a novelty. But it won't work."
The right way to view AI is as an incredibly efficient time-saver, Cuban added, not a blanket substitute for human talent.
"It's part of the natural progression from drawing to CGI and now text to video, with new tools coming to take it even further," Cuban told BI. "But the one underlying skill any creative needs is to be able to create for their audience. AI can't replace that feel."
Veteran creatives who are able to harness the power of AI to improve their own output, according to Cuban, will continue to see major dividends. He expects it to make the "best even better" — affording them the ability to more "quickly storyboard" and "create tests," among other things.
"I understand why there is fear. I understand the annoyance of AI," Cuban wrote. "People have spent decades learning the latest and greatest tech and now they will have to learn so much more. And with the rapid change. Stay up with it. But like all technologies before it, it will be worth it."