166: Your job is to have taste
The role of humans in an age of AI-infused creativity
Each of us idea people has a responsibility now that AI is here.
Good news, this responsibility is also a skill. It’s a skill you are born with, a skill you can hone. Some people have made remarkable careers with this skill.
It’s a skill that matters now that AI has begun to suggest knowledge is becoming a commodity; now that AI has enabled more people to be more capable (never mind creative) in more avenues than many imagined possible; now that leaders are expecting AI to improve efficiency and increase creative innovation among their ranks.
I should be clear. AI didn’t suddenly foist this responsibility on all of us. AI just clarified the need.
The need for taste.
Taste is a response to technology, a balance to technical capability. Once we invented paint brushes and canvases and printing presses, once we conjured stages, props and curtains and projection systems and screens, once we crafted musical instruments—the need for taste became clear.
Things got more challenging as desktop software emerged. As one of the two office manager characters put it in that Apple Macintosh TV ad: “I think the more powerful computer…is the one people want to use.” All of a sudden more people could design more things more quickly. Taste became important, especially if you wanted your work—or the output of your team or organization or brand—to stand apart, to generate additional value.
Just because the technology says you are capable doesn’t mean the work you produce will be heard or seen, will resonate, will matter to someone, will affect behavior, will be remembered. This is where and why taste becomes a necessary skill we need to understand and leverage.
I said you were born with it.
Alas, it was probably schooled out of you, too. (Seth wrote all about that here.)
And the vast majority of corporations have not welcomed taste as a skill or capability among their ranks. For a very long time taste was dicey. Taste was off-putting. Taste was opinionated, and [shudder] elitist. Taste was carefully relegated to a very few, and not discussed in polite society.
Because taste has mostly been misunderstood in the context of work. Taste isn’t some bizarre attribute harnessed only by those with fanciful eyewear, shoes and haircuts. Taste is understanding and respect—fueled by curiosity, managed by fluency in topics like brand standards, color theory, human history, behavioral economics or even grammar. Taste is pragmatic application—understanding context and circumstance, then reacting effectively. Taste is decision-making, not arbitrary guesswork or opinion. Taste takes working at it. You might get lucky the first time. It’s the 1,000th time you employ taste which requires practice and effort. By the way, taste is not making things. Taste is reacting to, and guiding the making and publishing of things.
Given the deluge of AI-generated content, we need taste more than ever.
Because AI doesn’t know six fingers on a hand is aesthetically troublesome (not just anatomically inaccurate). AI doesn’t know what color palette or design system or layout or typography or skin tone or casting or locations are tasteful when it comes to your next assignment. AI isn’t aware of your audience’s sensibilities, you are. That’s why you have taste and why it is a responsibility. Some people have taken that responsibility and developed incredible value shepherding things like magazines, museums, networks and brands towards growth and greater profitability.
We need to operationalize taste in the age of AI.
I think this begins by recognizing the machines can’t do the work for you. As enabling and profound as AI has proven to be in such short time, the technology remains inert. Someone has to instigate, to prompt. AI isn’t self-initiating, yet. Which means someone has responsibility for AI’s result. That someone ought to be able to articulate a goal or expectation. That’s where taste starts to flourish—it points towards an outcome, suggests what success can look like.
A second aspect of taste acknowledges context and audience. Where and when are we creating, and for whom? Taste means being able to articulate for whom and under what circumstances are we creating. Taste grasps boundaries. A creative brief might help you here.
And finally, in its best use, taste nurtures understanding but doesn’t demand obedience for any single opinion. It isn’t about you. Taste transcends. The trick is in sharing the benefits, welcoming a collective comprehension, instead of squirreling away some secret code. In many ways, taste is actually a collective understanding. If we’re going to be overwhelmed by AI, we’d all better get on the same page.
Let’s conclude with a solid rant from TikTok speaking to the ultimate failure of technology (algorithms) to curate tastefully, exposing the practical value of taste-makers. We actually need humans who know what they’re talking about. And everything comes full circle.
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Thank you Mona, Garrio, Callan, Heather and Laurie for the astute observations and insights yesterday at the Marketers’ Community event on AI.
🎨 Speaking of taste: The Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s 27th annual student Art Sale begins tonight and continues through Saturday. Buy Art. Smile. Repeat.
📰 Oh! And, here’s a fabulous story about the Department of Defense climate research project MCAD’s Creative Entrepreneurship program has been working on. A 100-year old fine arts college works on DOD climate projects? Yes!
🔵 Yes, I’m on Bluesky (@tbrunelle.bsky.social).
🔬🤖 Here’s a robust case study from Microsoft about using AI to understand, then improve supply chain invoicing inside Dow Chemical. I know. I know. It doesn’t sound creative, but trust me it is. If someone can figure this out with hundreds of thousands of 20-page supply chain invoice PDFs, what other stories and insights are possible?
😵💫 Remember all those videos you uploaded to YouTube where you didn’t create a custom title? You just left it something like “IMG_0276”? Riley has created a website that scrapes YT to display them here. Now, take the same concept and apply it to all video titles with, say, “potato” in the title, or your brand, or whatever. (Via Garbage Day)
🎶 Today’s missive was written to “Spit” by Wishy off their excellent Triple Seven release. If you’re into My Bloody Valentine, The Breeders, Ride, et al this 2024 album could be your cup of tea. Pitchfork gave it 7.3 (I’d have ranked it higher).