692. What Will A.I. Do to (and for) Human Creativity?

Writers, designers, actors, coders, musicians, thinkers — they’re all worried about being replaced by machines. But what if the A.I.s are actually here to help? (Part one of a two-part series.) 

• SOURCES:
  • Sean Astin, actor, president of SAG-AFTRA.
  • Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired.
  • Ethan Mollick, associate professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Eline Van der Velden, founder and C.E.O. of Particle6.

• RESOURCES:
  • Co-Existence: The Next Phase of AI, by Ethan Mollick (2026).
  • "Apocalypse Now and Then," by Arundhati Roy (Equator, 2026).
  • "Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Creativity and Diversity: An Empirical Study of Large Language Model-Generated Product Ideas," by Christian Terwiesch, Lennart Meincke, Karan Girotra, Ethan Mollick, Gideon Nave, and Karl Ulrich (Production and Operations Management, 2026).
  • "Quiet, My Exoself," by Kevin Kelly (KK, 2026).
  • Co-Intelligence: Living and Working With AI, by Ethan Mollick (2024).
  • "The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development," by Michael Kremer (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1993).

• EXTRAS:
  • "How to Poison the A.I. Machine," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
  • "The Curious, Brilliant, Vanishing Mr. Feynman," series by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
  • "How to Think About A.I.," series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
  • "103 Pieces of Advice That May or May Not Work," by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

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