This week, I have been invited by the Moroccan government to address its leaders and key creatives across a swathe of creative industries. It has forced me to explore industries beyond publishing, helping to get a wider perspective on what we’re all wrestling with: AI’s role in creativity.

We have all read that "no work of art is truly original". The implication is that every novel, song, film and every painting is built upon everything that came before. We create from a vast, interconnected web of influences, absorbing, remixing, reinterpreting and synthesising ideas. The most important question we can ask about AI is not whether it will replace human creativity but how it will contribute to this ever-expanding cycle of inspiration. 

It is easy to fear AI in the arts. Can a machine compose a symphony in seconds? Can it write a novel, produce a film, design a game world or even generate a new voice indistinguishable from a human one? These notions unsettle us because we equate creativity with human essence, with the intangible flicker of inspiration that makes art meaningful. We wonder: if AI can create, what does that make us? I have a collection of children’s stories soon to be published and I hate to think that a robot might have conceived them – they’re personal and tell moral tales I feel I have invented. We can all feel our feathers being flustered.

And yet, history tells us that every great leap in technology has provoked similar anxiety. The camera did not kill painting; it reshaped it. The synthesizer didn’t end music; it birthed new genres. The printing press didn’t destroy storytelling; it unleashed the very industry we work in. AI, too, is not a threat to creativity, but an augmentation of it – a technology that unlocks new forms of expression, pushing creative industries beyond known limits.

AI is already changing everything. Across creative sectors, AI is no longer some distant hypothetical. It is here, working alongside us, shaping the present. Musicians use AI-driven tools like AIVA and Boomy to compose and arrange tracks, freeing them to focus on the emotional core of their music. Tools like Spotify’s AI DJ redefine audience engagement, curating not just songs but entire moods. Filmmakers harness AI for everything from script generation (Skript AI) to advanced dubbing (Flawless AI), making storytelling more fluid across languages and cultures.

In gaming, AI is transforming interactivity itself. No Man’s Sky employs procedural generation – algorithmic rules rather than machine-learning models – to create vast, explorable universes. Ubisoft’s Ghostwriter AI writes nuanced, non-repetitive dialogues for non-player characters, deepening immersion. Inworld AI is pushing the boundaries of game narrative, crafting characters that respond dynamically to players – creatures not of code, but of ’intelligence’.

Even in publishing, AI is revolutionising workflows. Translation engines bring literature across linguistic barriers at a speed never imagined. ElevenLabs creates AI-narrated audiobooks that preserve tone and nuance. AI-driven discovery engines surface books to readers who might never have found them otherwise. My own company, Shimmr AI, brings an author’s work to life in an immediately accessible form, as automated advertising to drive discovery.

It’s our responsibility – as artists, as writers, as musicians, as filmmakers, as cultural architects – to shape how AI functions in our worlds

This isn’t the death of creativity. It’s a flourishing, an expansion. 

Yet it does raise questions about how data is used, whether creators are fairly compensated and what happens when automation outpaces human roles. As with any powerful tool, the question is: who wields it and to what end? As we inexorably move from putting AI to use for corporate efficiency, and instead see it driving creative emancipation, these questions become more urgent to answer.

Globally, AI and creativity are evolving hand in hand. While Morocco builds its future with AI, remarkable breakthroughs are happening elsewhere. Refik Anadol, a Turkish-American media artist, is creating AI-driven art installations that evolve in real-time, offering viewers dynamic, living works of art. Promise Studios, a venture backed by industry players, is producing AI-assisted films exploring what happens when machine intelligence and human storytelling combine. People like will.i.am are integrating AI into music production, reshaping both the creative process and the way artists interact with their audiences.

The world is not waiting for AI to disrupt creativity. AI is already here, shaping what we see, hear and experience every day. The question is whether we let it dictate the terms, or whether we guide it to enhance, rather than diminish, human artistry.

So, what do we do? How do we ensure that AI does not replace us, but rather empowers us? The answer, I believe, is in interaction.

Much like a camera is useless without a photographer, AI is nothing without a human vision to direct it. It does not yearn, or dream or suffer – it doesn’t create because it must. It creates because we tell it to. And there lies its power: to amplify human creativity, not diminish it.

It is our responsibility – as artists, as writers, as musicians, as filmmakers, as cultural architects – to shape how AI functions in our worlds. That includes advocating for transparent governance, ethical use of data, and fair compensation. Not by fearing it, but by engaging with it. Not by ceding our place to it, but by ensuring it understands and serves us. 

What would certainly help us all is a clear, legal framework, not just in the UK but globally, by which creators of all types are fairly recognised for their original works, and properly rewarded for it – whether it’s used for training, citation or transformation into other forms that drive even more revenue streams (like books being made into films). Creators should have the right to decide whether their works are available to train or be cited by AI. The UK is currently considering legislation that puts the onus on the creator to surveil if their works are used – surely an impossible task given the global nature of AI development and its frenetic pace. In addition to legal, there are also new systems emerging, like Created by Humans, which enable creators to make their works available, at a price, and in their control – it is a marketplace where one can sell one’s rights, agreeing the price with a buyer. Obviously, this needs a lot of testing, with iterations for publishers and authors. One way or another, creators ought to be able to define whether their work is available for use, not find that they have to chase down the users and demand recognition and reward.

AI is not the death of creativity. It’s a new frontier for it. The future of art, of culture, of human expression – that, still, belongs to us.