AI and the Freedom to Create

Artificial intelligence inspires strong opinions, particularly when the conversation turns to creativity. Some see it as an exciting new tool, while others regard it as a threat to writers, artists, musicians and filmmakers. I understand many of those concerns, but my own view is broadly optimistic.

I see AI as liberating.

Creative ambition has always been limited by access as well as ability. Someone might have an idea for a film but lack the money or technical knowledge to make one. Another person might hear music in their head but be unable to play an instrument. Someone else might imagine an entire fictional world but struggle to translate it into polished prose :-)

AI is lowering some of those barriers. It does not make talent, experience or craft irrelevant, but it gives more people an opportunity to create.

My own route into writing helps explain why I value that opportunity.

I had always wanted to write a screenplay, partly because I enjoy the directness of the form. Screenplays are lean by necessity. They concentrate on action, dialogue and what can be seen or heard. The characters reveal themselves through their choices, and the story keeps moving.

That reflects the way I naturally read. When reading a novel, I often move quickly through long descriptive passages to reach the dialogue or the next important event. I want to know what happens. I understand that this is not how everyone reads, and certainly not how everyone wants a novel to be written.

My wife is almost the opposite. She enjoys the detail: the atmosphere of a room, the texture of a place and the quieter observations that allow a reader to inhabit a character’s world. What I might be tempted to move past is often exactly what draws her further into the story.

Turning Dark Vicar from a lean screenplay into a full novel made that difference impossible to ignore. A screenplay can leave much of the texture to actors, directors, cinematographers and production designers. A novelist has to create it on the page. Readers need more than a sequence of events. They need to understand the space, feel the atmosphere and notice the details that give important moments their weight.

This is one of the areas where AI has been particularly helpful to me. I provide the foundations, including the characters, plot, dialogue, purpose and emotional direction of a scene. AI helps me explore ways to add texture and colour around those central elements. It can develop a sparse description, suggest ways of establishing atmosphere or identify where a scene needs more room to breathe.

That does not mean accepting everything it produces. AI often adds too much. It can misunderstand a character, invent something that contradicts the story or make the prose more elaborate than I want it to be. My role is to decide what belongs, remove what does not and ensure the writing remains consistent with the novel I am trying to create.

In that sense, AI helps me work beyond my natural preferences. It encourages me to consider what a reader like my wife might want from a scene without losing the directness and momentum that I value. The aim is not to bury the story beneath description. It is to give the story enough atmosphere and texture to feel alive.

Not everything produced using AI will be good. Much of it will probably be forgettable, but the same is true of work created without it. Access to a camera does not guarantee a good film. Owning a guitar does not produce a memorable song, and knowing how to use a word processor does not make someone a novelist.

Tools can assist with execution, but they cannot guarantee imagination, judgement or taste. Creative work will ultimately stand or fall on its quality and the experience it gives its audience. Does the novel hold the reader’s attention? Does the song stir an emotion? Does the film remain in the viewer’s mind after the credits have finished?

I also believe creators should be open about how they use AI. The characters, world, central plot, themes and creative direction of my novels are my own. I decide what happens, why it happens and how the characters respond. AI helps me turn those decisions into prose, refine descriptions and test different approaches. Every passage is reviewed, revised and approved by me before it becomes part of the manuscript.

There are legitimate concerns surrounding copyright, consent, employment and the material used to train generative systems. Those questions should not be dismissed simply because the technology is useful. Fair rules will be needed, and those rules will evolve alongside the technology.

However, I do not believe creativity must remain difficult or inaccessible to be valid. Affordable cameras opened filmmaking to people outside studios. Digital audio workstations allowed musicians to produce records in bedrooms. Self-publishing gave writers a route to readers without first receiving permission from a traditional gatekeeper.

AI represents another significant change. It will produce a great deal of noise, but it may also allow extraordinary work to be created by people who previously lacked the means to make it.

The audience will decide what deserves to endure.