Artificial intelligence can't make you a creative artist

A few weeks ago, we held one of the most successful conferences at Dayster University. Its theme was “Building Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Networked Societies.” I was humbled when the university asked me to chair the committee that organised the conference. As we prepared for the conference, however, I found myself increasingly intrigued by Artificial Intelligence and its implications to the creative industry. I became particularly interested in what AI means for a model of creativity that I have been advancing, called the Narrative Transformation Model (NTM).

My argument is simple: writers do not really create. We transform reality into narrative. We take experiences, observations, memories, encounters, emotions and the world around us and transform them into stories. The writer is, therefore, not simply a creator in the conventional sense. The writer is a transformer of reality.

This is where my interest in Artificial Intelligence becomes particularly intense. Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly one of the defining technologies of our generation. It is transforming education, healthcare, agriculture, finance, communication, governance and the creative industries. It is changing not only how we work but also how we imagine the future. That is why, in my welcoming speech at the conference, I did not focus on whether we can build intelligent systems. Clearly, we are doing it. The greater question is whether we can build systems that are responsible, just and inclusive.

I asked if Artificial Intelligence will widen the gap between the privileged and the marginalised, or whether it will become a bridge that expands opportunity. I engaged my audience to think about whether AI will replace human dignity or enhance it. Will it merely make machines smarter, or will it help societies become wiser? I think these are the questions that made our conference so significant, and more so for those in the creative industry.

Instead of lapsing into theories, I told the story of Bezalel from the Bible to explain my thoughts on AI. My humble belief is that there is nothing so spectacular about AI, for there is already a revelation about it in the Bible. Please do not throw a stone at me. Let me explain and help open your eyes. Let me do it through the same story. Why? Stories often illuminate truths that arguments alone cannot. The good thing about stories is that they invite us to see before they ask us to understand.

When we think about the Book of Exodus, our minds often go to Moses confronting Pharaoh, the parting of the Red Sea, or the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. But there is a small story in Chapter 31 that speaks powerfully about AI. After delivering the Israelites from Egypt, God instructed Moses to build the Tabernacle. This was a sacred place where God’s presence would dwell among His people.

The task was extraordinary. It demanded architectural brilliance, artistic imagination, engineering precision, craftsmanship and collaboration. In many ways, it was one of the greatest innovation projects in the Bible. But before the work could begin, God did something remarkable. He called a man named Bezalel, the son of Uri from the tribe of Judah. God declared that He had filled Bezalel with His Spirit, giving him four things: wisdom, understanding, knowledge and every kind of skill. The sequence is important in understanding the implications for AI.

Bezalel was not called because he needed technical ability alone. His craftsmanship was to be rooted in wisdom. His creativity was to be guided by understanding, and his innovation was to be directed towards serving God and the community. For me, this story carries a timeless lesson about modern realities. The Bible’s first great innovator was not celebrated simply for his extraordinary technical ability. He was celebrated because he was first filled with wisdom, understanding and knowledge, and only then with skill.

The sequence matters. Skill without wisdom can destroy. Knowledge without understanding can mislead. Innovation without ethics can deepen inequality. But when wisdom leads, technology becomes a force for human flourishing. And this is where I return to Artificial Intelligence and creative writing. The ability to use AI will not make you a writer, an artist or a content creator. Never.

You must be wise enough to guide the technology. Are you using AI to create something that will solve societal problems? Are you using innovations in a way that honours the dignity of every human being? Are you using it to advance fairness and justice? In your use of AI, are you creating opportunities for those who have too often been left behind? Are you using AI to strengthen our shared humanity? These questions are just as important in creative writing.

Let us face it. Artificial Intelligence cannot replace the human being in the creative process. The reason is simple. It is our unique experiences that we transform into narratives. A machine can help us with this process of transformation. It can help us shape, refine and work with language. It can become a tool in the writer’s hands. But the tool is not the experience, the memory, the encounter with another human being, or the life that the writer has lived. AI does not encounter reality, experience it, interpret it and transform it into narrative. That distinction matters.

If my postulations are right within the context of the Narrative Transformation Model (NTM), then the fundamental act of writing remains deeply human. AI is only a tool, like a pen or paper. Anyone who thinks that the tool is a writer, scriptwriter, or content creator is lost. The writer must still have something to transform from reality. That, perhaps, is the lesson I took from Bezalel. He had skill. But skill came after wisdom, understanding and knowledge.

As we enter an age in which our machines will become increasingly capable of producing words, images and other forms of creative expression, perhaps the most important question for writers is whether we, as human beings, will remain wise enough to know what is worth writing about.

Prof. Egara Kabaji is a writer, educationist, and researcher based at Masinde Muliro University. He is also the Vice President of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) and the Chancellor of Mt. Kigali University, Rwanda.