Sign in Subscribe

Post-AI Manifesto

12 points for a creative future beyond pattern recognition.

David Young

• 2 min read

Today's AI operates by predicting from the past. We need creativity that moves beyond pattern recognition.

  1. AI is no longer the future. Artists have already absorbed AI into their practices. It's just another tool. The so-called revolution has passed.
  2. We refuse to stop here. Treating AI as the endpoint of creativity is a failure of imagination. There is something beyond the current moment.
  3. AI is inherently backward-looking. Trained on the entirety of digitized culture, it can only remix what came before. It cannot originate the truly new.
  4. The myth of AI as ultimate technology is false. Believing AI is the final creative tool is surrendering to nostalgia wrapped in novelty.
  5. Human creativity breaks patterns. Unlike machines, humans disrupt, invent, and reshape perception. The next da Vinci or Picasso won't emerge from training data.
  6. Post-AI means moving beyond prediction. It's not about rejecting technology – it's about transcending this moment. We must leap toward realms AI cannot reach.
  7. Technology shapes creativity – and vice versa. New media open new possibilities. But artistic vision also drives technological breakthroughs.
  8. The next creative revolution may come from quantum systems. Technologies rooted in uncertainty, probability, and superposition could open doors AI cannot conceive.
  9. The future belongs to the unpredictable. Post-AI creativity reclaims the human: nonlinear, intuitive, disruptive. It's not about optimizing the machine – it's about imagining what comes after it.
  10. AI is poisoning reality itself. Deepfakes, misinformation, and synthetic content threaten our connection to truth and authentic experience.
  11. We won't solve AI's problems with more AI. The solution isn't better AI – it's breaking free from its regressive logic.
  12. We are the creators of what comes next. The Post-AI future won't emerge from corporate labs or venture capital. It begins with us – choosing to create beyond the boundaries of extractive thinking.

This was derived from my essay Post AI.

There is a graphic version as an Instagram post.