AI tales of 4 creative workers in art, video, music, and writing
4 anecdotes reported by the BBC on the effects of AI on creative people’s jobs: a 'furry artist', a vidoegrapher, a musician, and a copywriter.
Hi folks, here’s a quick share of some excerpts from a fresh BBC article exploring AI disruption to the livelihoods of four human creative workers in art, video, music, and writing. See the full BBC article for details about these workers and how AI is impacting their work lives (in good ways or bad).1
Art: Aisha Belarbi
Aisha creates furry art (animals with human characteristics). Now that “people can just generate whatever they want”, she now earns her living by writing books about how to draw. “This is my livelihood at stake, and a lot of other people’s livelihoods,” she adds.
Video: JP Allard / MirrorMe
MirrorMe’s product, he says, replaces “every form of corporate media.” He acknowledges the impact on other videographers. “The problem is the velocity of change. In the past, we had five or six years to take typewriters out and replace them with word processors and PCs. Now it’s happening in months.”
Music: Ross Stewart
His mum sent him an “AI album” of blues music to listen to — “one of about 30 albums that have been released just this year by that one artist“. He sees this speed as “posing a danger — it’s affecting songwriters, producers, musicians”.
Writing: Niki Tibble
Three years after having children, on returning to the workforce, this copywriter found “AI had taken my role” on “smaller jobs” which are now “largely gone”. For now, she works on checking and improving on AI-generated copy, but questions how long her job will last.
What impacts are you seeing in your daily life?
How can we as a society better address the speed of change and these disruptions?
Image credit: Christopher Robin
To learn more about impact of AI on lives and livelihoods, see Everyday Ethical AI: A Guide For Families & Small Businesses. This is one of the five key concerns covered in my book, with practical tips for five things we can do.
Bonus link: an interview and review by Gunnar Habitz:
Source: ‘We’re creatives - this is what AI has done to our jobs’, Ben Schofield, Political correspondent, BBC East and Andrew Sinclair, Political editor, BBC East. 2025-12-07. Use of these brief excerpts is believed to be compliant with BBC Terms of Use.
Wow, this is pretty scary stuff for creatives. Thanks for shedding some light on this. We can add it to the list of things we don't often consider that are being impacted.