Fast food didn’t make restaurants obsolete
Disclaimer: This quote isn’t mine, I first heard it here. However, it made me want to keep pulling the thread.
The context of the discussion has nothing to do with restaurants and fast food, but with fruits. I particular AI generated fruit in a Love Island parody. I’ve watched all episodes availabe to today, and I can’t say it was worth every minute, but in how many ways don’t we spend too many hours dumb scrolling? From the series of videos (in Tik Tok format) one can extract the essence of the real show (that I’m no one to judge whether it’s absurd or not) and how we would like the show to actually be (with more gossip, more explicit content, fighting and hair-pulling).
The question raised is: How much of this will stay? We see how easy it is to create content that feels creative and funny with AI, but it’s far from being something as enduring and authentic as watching real people’s opinions, reactions, and interactions—even in a fabricated scenario such as a reality show.
AI is giving people tools to create content (funny or not) that might go viral for a while and then be forgotten as soon as the next hit appears. But can it—or will it ever—shape culture? My guess is no. Even when it can represent scenarios the person in control wants to see, these can be so disconnected from real-world context and the audience’s personal rationale that people quickly realise it’s too much to take seriously.
There’s always someone raising the question of whether AI-generated content will replace designers and reshape our relationship with art (be it graphic or music). I see that AI elevates the potential of people and businesses to present themselves without a designer’s help, but so far I haven’t seen it create a style. We often hear someone say, “This just looks like a generic AI image/text.” I highlight the word generic because, even if the output comes from connecting loose concepts and tools (the definition of creativity), it’s still easy not to be impressed. It can’t truly be new or revolutionary. AI can’t break the rules and, while individual outputs may be new, they’re ultimately just reflections of what has already been commonly accepted.
Beyond the Fruit Love Island parody (which, I have to say, I found hilarious), the discussion can be approached from a different angle. There have been various reports and reflections on whether the internet is simply being filled with trash and losing its purpose. Here there’s an analysis on how the internet seems to be getting worse, and if you dig into the topic, it’s been a recurring discussion. Finding content that is worth your time, spark and inspiration and start a discussion isn’t really easy, unless you mindfully go for it outside the mainstream entertainment channels.
I say we must keep echoing what is genuine, even when it involves challenging ideas, because culture and cultural shifts can only be made by people. I’m often told people don’t read blogs anymore and that the best use for The Wide Lens Kitchen is to feed AI. If cultural changes happen when someone keeps doing something “wrong” until it becomes the new right, then accepting only fast-digesting, comforting content will only slow progress down. Progress isn’t just about the tech; it happens because of people and their values.
So, fast food didn’t make restaurants obsolete, and AI won’t replace artists. We might crave trash content the same way we crave a McFlurry, but we keep going to bistros because we value the people behind them—their intent and their story. Content that is powerful enough to endure, challenge our ideals, and shift culture is the kind that comes from people’s emotions in a lived context.
Food for thought: Without getting into the use of AI for misinformation and political campaigning, I keep finding it embedded in all kinds of products—templates, calendars, graphic art and music, blog posts—produced at near-zero cost. If that’s the case, it’s fair to say that the value of your time and attention is also being treated as near zero.
