Kyle Chayka

And there are things that don't help you to shortcut so much, such as thinking about what you find beautiful.

It's like a substitution of slop for maybe more human artistry.

I mean, there's a lot of anxieties around taste, period.

I think in part because it can be a class marker, because it differentiates people.

I've spoken to a lot of people who are just worried about their taste.

They're worried about if they're consuming the right kinds of culture, if they're appreciating the right things.

And I think, in a way, AI markets itself as solving that problem in that you don't have to think about the right thing to like or the right thing to read or the right thing to understand.

You can just get the answer right away.

Like, it can assuage that cultural anxiety, but I think by quote-unquote solving it, it also eliminates our appreciation of what we find beautiful ourselves.

Like, it solves a problem that's not a problem necessarily.

My answer to all of that stuff is that we've kind of lost the art of being moved by things or like consuming and making art, period.

If we go back a century or two, many more people played the piano.

They played music at home.

They wrote poetry.

They made sketches.

There's this culture of anxiety again around making stuff on your own.

and just going out there and DIYing whatever.

And I think we have to reclaim that a little bit so we can also appreciate what other artists bring us.

If you want to understand a great painter, make a painting.

I would love to get a drum machine and understand how beats work so I know electronic music better.