Give It Away Now: On AI, Creativity, and Staying Human

I grew up in the Gen X era — a generation shaped by a deep skepticism toward authority, a stubborn sense of authenticity, and a soundtrack that often said more than any textbook ever could. One of those songs, Give It Away Now by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, carries a simple, aggressive kind of generosity: if you’ve got something inside you, something real, something worth sharing — give it away.

It’s a philosophy that feels newly relevant in the age of generative AI.

AI can now draft essays, paint pictures, mimic voices, design logos, and — soon enough — do things we haven’t even imagined yet. For artists, writers, and creators, the question is no longer whether to use AI. It’s how to use it — and what you owe the work and the world when you do.

I believe that if generative AI substantially generates a creative work — meaning it creates original content beyond mere assistance — you shouldn’t sell it.
You should give it away.

And not because the work is worthless.
But because doing so keeps something much more valuable intact: your integrity.

What Generative AI Is Good For in Creative Work

Used thoughtfully, generative AI can be a tremendous tool in the creative process.

• It can accelerate your thinking, helping you organize scattered ideas.

• It can push you into new territories, suggesting structures or framings you might not have considered.

• It can challenge your assumptions, like a brainstorming partner who’s always ready with another angle.

• It can sharpen your focus, by showing you — often painfully — what sounds generic or uninspired.

In that sense, AI is like a mirror.
It can reflect possibilities back at you.
But it can’t generate meaning on its own.

The soul of the work — the real spark — still has to come from you.

The Line Between AI-Assisted and AI-Generated

It’s important to be clear: using AI as an assistant is not the same as outsourcing your creativity.

If you create the core material — the ideas, the structure, the original expression — and AI assists you along the way, then the work remains yours.

• Using AI to brainstorm, organize, edit, or refine is no different, philosophically, from using a calculator for complex math or a word processor for writing.

AI-assisted work, where the human remains the primary creative force, can ethically and fairly be sold.

But if AI substantially generates the work — drafting major passages, inventing significant content, or replacing core human authorship — then it crosses a different line.

In that case, the ethical move is simple: don’t sell it. Give it away.

Sell what you truly created.
Give away what the machine helped generate.

The real test is simple:

Were you the originator, or was the machine?

Empathy and the Responsibility to Protect Others' Work

Artists can’t ignore the realities of how these tools are built.
Many generative AI models were trained on datasets full of copyrighted images, passages, and styles — scraped without consent. Even if you, personally, mean no harm, the tool itself may be built on a shaky ethical foundation.

If the tech companies won’t guard against it, we must guard against it among ourselves.

That means:

• Choosing tools that prioritize ethical sourcing whenever possible.

• Being transparent about where ideas and inspiration come from.

• Respecting the rights of fellow artists, even when platforms and algorithms do not.

Solidarity among creators isn’t a nostalgic ideal. It’s a necessary defense against a system that often treats creation as just another raw material to be extracted and repackaged.

Giving It Away as a Defense Against Exploitation

There’s another side benefit to giving away AI-influenced work:
you remove the incentive for others to steal it.

If your AI-assisted or AI-generated pieces are already free, there’s no profit left for bad actors to chase.
You cut the knees out from under the exploitation economy before it can even stand.

Your human-created works — the novels, the songs, the paintings that carry your real fingerprint — remain protected and valuable.
Meanwhile, the hybrid pieces exist openly, honestly, without the false scarcity that pirates and scammers thrive on.

In a strange way, giving it away isn’t just an act of generosity.
It’s an act of strategic defense.

Staying Human in the Creative Process

At the end of the day, the real question isn’t technological.
It’s philosophical.

Why are you creating?

If the answer is to sell as much as possible, AI will gladly help you.
If the answer is to say something real — to leave behind a mark that couldn’t be made by anyone (or anything) else — then you have to keep your soul intact through the process.

Learn to use the tools.
Master them when needed.
But never let them replace you.
And when they assist you meaningfully, but remain secondary to your vision, honor that boundary.

When the line is crossed — when the machine creates too much — give that work away with open hands.

Because real creation has always been about connection, not possession.
Because giving it away — not hoarding it — is what keeps the act of creation human.

Javier

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