We are now obsessed with AI-generated everything.
AI can imitate beauty, but it cannot contemplate beauty. AI is a powerful tool for efficiency and streamlining. However, human thought, creativity, and vision should always be the foundation. Ironically, the more advanced AI becomes, the more valuable being unmistakably human will become. The easier it is to generate beauty, the more valuable the ability to actually experience beauty will become.
We are actually already seeing this happen. For example, modern marketing advice tell founders to become as accessible as possible. Show your husband, your dog, your morning routine… build in public; share everything. However, if everyone becomes accessible- then mystery becomes scarce, and scarcity always drive value.
I think AI will have the same effect. The more artificial our world becomes, the more we crave what cannot be automated: presence, ritual, mystery, and yes… beauty.
AI will make imitation abundant, which will in turn make authenticity luxurious.
I believe that we are already beginning to see this shift. Below are three ways I think AI is quietly shifting our relationship with beauty, and why I genuinely believe human experiences will become our most valuable luxury.
1. AI Glasses
What happens when every moment can be outsourced to AI?
2. The Return of Mystery
Can beauty exist without mystery?
3. The Art of Presence
If AI can imitate beauty, who will still know how to experience it?
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Your patronage makes this publication possible and supports the time spent researching, reading, and writing these essays each week. Below, I’ll explore how AI is changing our relationship with attention, why mystery is becoming increasingly valuable in an age of radical transparency, and why the ability to truly experience beauty may become one of the defining human luxuries of the twenty-first century.
