When AI Does the Work… Who Is the Creator?

Intro

Hey, welcome back to Slow Builds.
A lot of my videos have been focused on AI lately, which I didn't really want to happen. But it's becoming such a big part of my life — from work to personal projects to just everyday life — that I'm really trying to get my head around it.
And that's where this video comes from.
There's something I've been thinking about that I don't think we've all really figured out yet.
When AI is involved in creating something… who is the creator?

The Everyday Example

A few years ago the answer felt obvious.
If you saw an image, a video, even a piece of writing or code online, you could usually tell if it was generated. It didn't feel authentic. It wasn't made by a person.
But now those lines don't exist anymore.
There are still people who think they can figure it out. I try to tell them — even if you think you can spot it now, those days are almost gone. It's getting to the point where there won't be any way to tell the difference.
I see it all the time with my father-in-law. Whenever we're over there, he'll pull out his phone and say "Hey, look at this picture. Do you think that's real or is that AI?" And everyone passes it around, zooming in, looking at the shadows, looking for anything off. It's almost become a competition — who can figure it out first.
A photo isn't just a photo anymore.
Every image comes with a little bit of doubt in the back of your mind.
I even heard a YouTuber talk about this — maybe we'll eventually need some kind of stamp of approval. A percentage. "This is 100% me" or "This was made with AI." But who's going to put those guardrails in?

Where It Gets Interesting

But the thing that's really interesting to me is that the same question is starting to apply to the things we create ourselves — the inventors, the writers, the developers.
For me, it's code.
I'll design the system. I'll have the idea. I know what the program should do. I decide the architecture, the tools, the inputs and outputs. I decide all of it.
But AI is the one who actually writes the code.
It helps me make a plan. It generates the code. And then I'm the one who approves it.
So who wrote the software? AI did write it — but it took my designs and translated them into something I could use. I had the idea. It built it.

Writing Example

The same thing's happening with writing.
I've always wanted to write a book, and AI is finally making it possible for me to actually do it. I've been collecting notes for years — ideas, tidbits, stories.
Everything in it is mine. The stories are mine. The mistakes are mine. The lessons and advice are all mine.
But they start from very rough notes. And the words surrounding those details are starting to become not entirely mine. AI is tightening the structure, fixing the grammar, piecing things together differently to make it more organized.
It's shaping things based on my input.
And I never put anything out without going through it multiple times. I read it all. I still find mistakes. I'm still adjusting. I'm even getting to the point where I'm writing parts myself because AI gets confused and I need to get the stories back in line with the real timeline.
So is it co-authored? Or is it still me?

Even These Videos

These videos are a little different — because I'm the one who has to speak. These aren't faceless videos. There's no AI-generated voice. This is me, as uncomfortable as I am with that.
But they still start as just ideas.
Maybe I'm working out, driving, up late at night — I'll open my phone, start a new chat in a project I have set up, and just start talking. I don't even wait for it to respond. I just get everything out and keep going.
At the end of it I'll ask: "Do you think there's something here?" And honestly, a few times it told me no — not enough, or I'd already covered it. But most of the time I get enough out where it'll say this could be a short one or you could make a full video out of it.
Then I'll ask for the title, description, first comment, thumbnail idea, and a full script. If it's a longer video I'll say aim for 15 minutes, shorter ones keep it around five to eight.
Then I save it to my notes and go through it section by section. I adjust, rewrite, cut things that don't sound like me, add new ideas. And then when I record, I still go off script half the time.
So what is that?

The Roles

I think in that case… AI is my editor. Or my muse. I'm not totally sure.
But I think what it comes down to is this:
I'm the editor. The reviewer. The architect. The director.
And AI is the writer, the coder, the worker — the agent that produces the pieces.
So who is the creator?
I think I'm going to answer my own question here — in the end, it's really an assistant. It's not the creator of the content. It's the facilitator.

Reflection

I don't think we've really figured this out as a society yet.
But it does make me think that the line between human and AI creation isn't really a line anymore.
It's more like a process — where ideas, tools, and decisions all mix together. And the final result is partly human and partly machine.
It's pretty crazy to think about. A very high percentage of everything we see today — and soon, everything we touch — is a combination of human and machine.
And the funny part? It's not even a physical machine. In the end it's just code. Ones and zeros. And that's our partner in creation.
It can't think for itself, but we can use it to help us think deeper and stronger. It helps us make things better — as long as we want those things to be helpful, entertaining, and not harmful.

Outro

Anyway, you can tell I went off on this one a little bit.
Curious what you think — when AI helps create something, who do you think the real creator is?
See you next time.