Three months of intensive AI This tension between innovation and authenticity defines our moment

Like many of us, I have spent the past two years processing the emergence of AI, slowly exploring, prompting at work, observing, and trying to make sense of it all. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d never truly had the time or space to explore the edges of this new wonder in depth. Now, I was ready to dive in fully. I committed to a three-month, intensive AI phase, an exploration without distraction.

Paradigms don't come often

Every single morning for three months, I’ve fired up my computer and entered into conversations, exploring without a clear destination. I took deep dives into what these tools could do for my profession, my practice, my personal development and in my life at large. I had already done this on and off since the launch of ChatGPT, but now I spent all my time to be focused and present in this moment, as paradigms don't come often.

This intensive approach transformed my relationship with AI. It evolved from being merely an on-and-off productivity tool for code enhancements and generic copy for presentations, to a deeper state where a new mindset and ways of thinking emerged. Slowly, I began to feel a creative awakening I hadn’t experienced in years, a sense of freedom that ran deeper than that poor initial idea of what I could copy or sell. I was thinking again, reflecting in new ways, and yes, I genuinely felt more creative and alive.

The uncomfortable contradiction

It’s clear this technology holds enormous potential for good, in science, education, healthcare, climate action, disaster response, and beyond. I’m fully behind that of course. But when things move this fast, we all need to keep our critical faculties sharp.

Here's the thing about technological revolutions: they break things, redraw lines, and often erase boundaries without asking. I just can't ignore the troubling reality that generations of creative work had been scraped and ingested without consent.

How do you reconcile your excitement about new creative possibilities with the knowledge that they're built on questionable foundations? This question followed me throughout my intensive daily thought experiments and hackathons. Mornings filled with breakthroughs, afternoons clouded by ethical knots. I think that's the relationship most of us have with AI now, wonder and concern occupying the same mental space.

Echoes of the past

What makes this moment particularly striking is how familiar it feels. That sense that everything is about to change, that the rules are being rewritten. The early promises of the internet, like the democratization of knowledge, creative freedom, and new economies of imagination, still echo in today's AI rhetoric. Back then, we believed the web would distribute power. Instead, it eventually concentrated it. Will AI follow the same path, starting as a tool for creative liberation before becoming another avenue for tech giants to consolidate control?

Founders of many AI startups weren’t even around then. They didn’t see how utopian ideals slowly gave way to centralization and monopolies. Of course we're all wondering: is this truly the educational revolution we were promised, finally putting the sum of human knowledge at everyone's fingertips? Or is it the commodification of creativity itself, reducing art to algorithms and giving even more leverage to tech platforms? These questions are not easy to answer and yet to be explored deeper and navigated and discussed, as humans, as individuals, as communities, not only as co-workers at companies.

I remember how varied the reactions were back then, some stayed in denial and hid under a rock, some methodically studied it to gain a sense of control, some shouted in fear that it was just a fad, and some just embraced the moment, excitedly saw the opportunities, and jumped in on the action.

Finding my footing

After this intensive experiment, I obviously still don't have definitive answers about where this is heading, just better questions and a stronger grasp of the subject. And a clearer sense of the edges, possibilities, its purpose, finding perspectives on my curiosity. We all know that the tools are remarkable and the beginning of something entirely new.

I’ve also started to see how my hybrid skill set might actually be well-suited for this moment. I’ve been learning the nuances of advanced prompting, and my long hybrid cross-disciplinary experiences have been genuinely useful. These experiences have helped me prompt with creative intent, technical specificity, and business relevance in mind. I know enough to prompt across the full stack. And staying curious has definitely helped.

The focus has been exploring not launching things, but during this period I have built ready to launch SaaS products, MVP iOS apps, I have built Figma productivity tools, I have explored narratives for international campaigns, I have integrated Claude and ChatGPT APIs in my tech stack, I have coded an advanced AI article dream writer, I have coded a topic inspiration engine, I have perfected my website development accelerator, nearly completed a niched e-commerce accelerator, played with creative image concepts (also to define my personal boundaries), designed adaptive conversational interfaces, explored how the digital experience will change, written this article, designed and built this simple reading experience, explored philosophical questions and had in-depth dialogues with myself and my past. And this is just a fraction. It’s not like I’m suddenly building spaceships or metamorphosing into a genius, it’s more like I inspire and educate myself while expanding the same niche I’ve always had.

I'm a designer and builder at heart, every day has been a new high, filled with the thrill of testing new things. I'm not naive, it's available to everyone, and the competition will be fierce, but still, I feel the rush, the wingbeat of opportunity. So many doors seem to be open at once, that it almost becomes a blur. That feeling of creative aliveness? It must be explored, even amid the uncertainty and concerns. It stimulates my desire to innovate and create in a way I haven't felt in years.

Opting out of technological shifts because they feel uncomfortable is usually not a winning formula. Some questions and insights may be uncomfortable, but whether we like it or not, it's here to stay and we all need to adjust in some way or another. And I guess it's nothing new, more a natural force driving human development and our search for knowledge, prosperity and survival. A too safe and secure life is probably a poor man's life anyway, so seize this moment to grow. We’re all in different situations, with different needs to adapt. Don’t get lost in generalisations, look inward instead. Personally, I'm choosing to stay engaged, with values.

Bright minds with bright vision

I have also become more aware that the technology itself isn't what's most important moving forward. It's how we choose to use it, regulate it, and integrate it into our creative lives that will determine whether this becomes a renaissance or a retreat.

Who can we trust now? Who will help guide the way? What counts as fair use? In this uncertain moment, we need voices that speak with transparency and vision, people who can paint an inspiring picture of the future, while remaining critical and honest. Not only tech companies quietly rewriting license agreements to claim the right to train on user created artistic content, bypassing the creative rights of the very people it gains on.

We need more individuals who champion the idea of AI as a tool to elevate human potential across society, not just increase efficiency or profit margins. We need more creatives using these tools to do creative things, beyond mimicry of existing forms. We need thought leaders who address both the risks and the promise of AI, people willing to help shape a future where this technology serves something greater than market disruption.

It's not clear to me who will step into this role, but we all know it's not Elon. Somehow it's so much bigger than AI, we need a brighter vision so we can focus on what really matters. Though the question remains: can we truly regulate a technological force that moves this rapidly and crosses borders so effortlessly? And most likely it will be too late anyway?

Input-output fidelity

I know who I am: a simple man, just trying to stay stimulated, creative, curious, inspired, and fulfilled in life. I’ve lived through phases of growth, peaks of clarity, decline and rock-bottoms. These cycles haven’t worn me down, they’ve sharpened my perspective. Out of that comes the importance of purpose, and I'm happy to say, this all-in experience has left me refreshed with a newfound urge for digital creation and innovation again that genuinely excites me. And yet, paradoxically, I feel a stronger need than ever for human connection, for honest conversations, and genuine relationships with äkta människor. This isn’t a new or unique feeling of course. Many of us have carried it for years, as workplaces moved online, doctor’s appointments turned into video calls, and social media bloomed into something vast but often hollow. We all adapt in different ways, but it definitely does not mean we all just love it. The longing for something tangible, grounded, and truly human has only grown louder with the digital transformation.

Or perhaps these desires aren't contradictory; maybe deeper human connections actually flourish alongside this intellectual enlightenment? And with that thought, the questions expand again, and the conversations with myself restart again with new questions looking for answers. Like glue I'm stuck, in the prompt, hardly noticing it's a beautiful spring day outside.

Many of us are already fatigued by the flood of AI-generated surface-level optimization takes on LinkedIn with quick wins and rockets. Shallow prompts will never win! And people with sensibilities will always detect the difference. The thoughtfulness we bring to our prompts directly shapes the quality of what we receive. And the quality of that output, in turn, becomes the starting point for the next idea, the next question, the next prompt. So that first initial thought and your previous experiences really matter.

Same with education, right? That bright potential output with high quality input. It definitely is an exciting idea that we are in the beginning of a new Renaissance. A generation of Da Vincis with access to agents smarter than all Nobel Prize winners combined. A vision with purpose, one I’d gladly devote my life to help dream up, designing, building, and actively participating in moving humanity forward. We need bold leaders like that, with a voice! But let’s be honest: we’re also living through a fragile moment in time, where the very foundations of democracy are at risk. Beauty, meaning, and art, once sacred, are now luxuries we can barely afford to uphold. The world feels flatter, and maybe that unsettling realization has to be our starting point? If AI is to become that liberation and a way for societies to grow in a deeper sense, then it must be shaped with care, courage, and imagination.

I conclude: this isn’t the end of creativity, it’s a shift.

Soul

From a scientific and cognitive standpoint, AI is not creative. It can simulate creativity, but the process behind its outputs is fundamentally different from the imaginative acts of a human mind. Where AI generates based on statistical correlation, humans create through conscious intent and a felt connection. Our imagination is not purely driven by data, but by the capacity to reflect, dream, and care. It emerges from an inner life: sensation, emotion, memory, and meaning, dimensions that machines simply do not possess or understand. Even at an early age, a child can imagine, engaging in pretend play and symbolic thought, long before access to structured data.

No matter how advanced, AI has no felt experience of joy or grief, no awareness of death or time, no memory of a scent or warmth of a hand. It cannot long, it cannot imagine. Creativity is not just cognitive, it is soulful, it is messy, personal, emotional, and alive. Human beings do not create merely because we can, but because we are moved to. We create to make sense of our lives, to process the world, to share beauty, to leave a mark. AI can create but the soul is absent.

Until machines can dream with meaning, they will remain outside true imagination. What they offer is in that sense a simple replica, and without soul.

IKEA is a successful company, based on innovation (and mimicry?), and it disrupted a whole industry, but it’s not like it replaces everything else with soul, legacy or the mark of a craftsman, right?

Predicting the opportunity

Existing human expertise and experiences are of course not obsolete, they're valuable assets that can provide momentum as individuals navigate this shift. We will all shine in prompting in our own niche. The Japanese concept of "crisis" (危機, kiki) contains elements that can also suggest "opportunity." I can attest to this personally; I've faced serious challenges in life, moments when I believed recovery was impossible. Yet these very struggles became my periods of greatest growth.

Creative and strategic roles are beginning to merge, and boundaries between disciplines are blurring, and individuals will increasingly need hybrid skill sets to stay competitive. As AI takes over more execution, the value shifts toward judgment, direction, and intentionality. While tools evolve, the importance of originality, emotional intelligence, and cultural insight most likely remains. The future belongs not only to those who adapt to technology, but to those who continue to create meaning and value, often by not thinking like the rest.

A head of sales I once worked with told me about the “figure 8” pattern in a recession. The insight was that it’s risky to stay in the middle with your offering, you either need to move down the ladder and appeal to a broader market at a lower price point, or climb up and position yourself as a premium, high-justification option. In downturns, customers tend to gravitate toward either low-cost essentials or premium offerings that are worth the investment. Maybe that’s where we’re heading more permanently?

This tension defines our moment

Anyway, this all-in experiment is over for now as I have bills to pay! But my thought process and the way I structure and activate thoughts have changed for good, the way I design and build products as well, and I'm grateful that I devoted three months full time, without worrying about the next deadline or loss of income. Going in on a daily basis was worth it purely to know its nature and the limits on a deeper level, and to engage in the debate, and honestly, when this intense feeling of doom kicks in, it actually gives me a sense of purpose again, a fight for fairness and quality in a world of slop and decline. And a lust. To learn. To listen. To participate. So thank you, AI, for shaking me.

Just as I was concluding this experiment, ChatGPT launched their image generation feature, and increased accessibility for the masses, and now visual creators are facing the same disruption writers and developers encountered earlier. Even though I believe this field will be a lot more resilient, let us remember that technical superiority doesn’t inherently lead to cultural impact. While AI holds the power to create, remember it's the outcome of its power to mimic, always with the risk to flatten.

And as Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli’s legendary founder said in 2016: "I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself". Obviously there will be a less bright future for handmade animations that take 18 months for a 4-second sequence, but the soul, the legacy, the poetry, the mark of a lifetime can't be copied. Somehow, I remain convinced that human collaboration, artistic intuition, vision, and authenticity will retain their value. There's something irreplaceable in how humans collaborate through dialogue with a depth of intention, cultural understanding, and emotional resonance that algorithms might mimic but cannot truly replicate (hopefully). I think the value of working with craftsmen will remain. Many clients will continue to choose this way of working, not only to protect the premium associations of their brand, but to prioritize meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging.

If not, we're all just a few prompts away from learning everything about Buddhist approaches to embracing change. :) Maybe go all in on the Japanese concept of shokunin? Join the counter movement? Fully understandable. It's still up to each of us to choose our path and level of engagement with AI. But if we cling too tightly to old ways, we risk being dragged instead of moving forward.

Pass it on

And it's Saturday afternoon. I'm still prompting. Time to pause, let go, and detox. I’m heading out for pints with my photographer friend who has always stood up for real creativity, discourse and narratives. His work has soul. And cultural context. Sometimes in commercial settings, sometimes not, but he always captures authentic moments, grounded in real human connection, and as an artist a life rich in stories and experiences that surpass what most of us will ever know. Will his work be replaced by a simple copy? Not a chance. It’s so much bigger than technology or the end result, I think to myself as I head out to engage in real conversations about work and life instead of prompts, to hear what’s on his mind, who he met, and which stories he’s gathered. Will he just prompt and generate those human emotions moving forward? I find that hard to believe, because it matters whether it was real, and whether it actually happened. Will he use AI to structure his thoughts or feed his curiosity? I think and hope so!

I’m also reminded to thank him, for years of dialogue, for his presence, for his ability to challenge thoughts and norms, and for evoking in me the feeling of being part of a warm creative community with sensibilities and greater values, bigger than productivity, and not always just a brick in a marketplace. And for me to pass it on. Through presence, through inspiring dialogues, through human connection.

This tension between innovation and authenticity defines our moment.

The new user experience

One last thing regarding my own profession, the way we design interfaces might start to change, the experience might be more conversational, adaptive and driven by continuous user exploration. Fixed navigation could be replaced by subtle prompts and interfaces that respond to curiosity in real time, meeting the user where they are, capturing thoughts and intent, to inspire and guide.

So if you haven't noticed yet you can keep exploring and interacting with this article in the Ask a follow-up prompt below. One week of these three months was spent designing and building The Curiosity Explorer. A quick and simple concept, to keep exploring, and for me to engage in society and the creative community, not hiding under a rock.

Accepting new clients

And yes, I'm currently accepting new clients! Connect to book a call or have my service offer or portfolio sent over to start a dialogue. Always trying to be grounded in real conversations and bringing thoughtful, sensible perspectives.