AI is making content even easier to create and share.
The internet brought the cost of content distribution to zero, and now AI is doing the same for the cost of content creation. (When Content Creation Goes to Zero | Evan Armstrong)
When AI is lowering the bar for so many people to become content creators, what are the differentiators? Why should people watch your stuff?
When YouTube started, you could make a case that traditional media had deep storytelling, high quality, and star power going for it. What is that now, but for the creators of the 2010s and 2020s?
My current hunches are:
- Community — Fandom is up in importance. Have you seen the Sarah J Massverse?
- Authenticity — the kind of vibe that’s harder to fake. I think it will be a lot longer before you’re like “yeah I want to have a beer with that digital avatar content creator”
- Density — more (trustworthy) information packed in. This is a good thing that scrollable media has done, is raise the expectations of how dense content can be.
- Status — lots of content creation and consumption is really about signalling. There’s still room for Sundance even if half of YouTube is generative.