Human creativity versus Generative AI
Welcome to the first ever Slices of Hope blog! This is a bit different to our usual content; usually we are painting peaceful and joyful images on found wood and sharing hope through art. This time, we are sharing hope through words. This post is a dip into a topic that is very important to us at SoH and very much on the mind of every creative we know - the importance of human creativity versus Generative AI. This post will cover and range of topics in brief with some linked sources for further reading or to support a claim. My goal is to present a short argument on why human creativity will always be better.
On we go!
Human creativity and mental health
We all have mental health, and the process of creating can actually help improve it! When we create in any way, whether it’s drawing, painting, playing music, cooking, carpentry or even building a beautiful spreadsheet, we are firing neural pathways and reinforcing or creating connections. It is the process that is actually creative, not the finished piece!
The Mental Health UK website has a great post about this; it says that “Artistic pursuits have been shown to decrease depression, anxiety, and burnout, can boost our immune systems…” This is backed by actual science by the Journal of Positive Psychology who published an article in 2016 titled 'Everyday creative activity as a path to flourishing'. Two big statements indeed. My own experience can attest to that (see my about page), and I’m sure many of you can add to that with your own story of using creativity to improve your mental health. An artist I met a recent craft market said “I need to retire, but I can't, and you don't really retire when you're an artist. And I need art really, it's my therapy”. We had a great chat that day and I even bought some of his work; you should definitely check out his Instagram.
When we use Generative AI, the only creating is writing the prompt, so your lovely brain loses all the benefits of the creative process; why would you want that? It’s like putting a ready meal in the microwave and calling it cooking!
Human creativity and cognitive function
It has become very normal for our brains to slow down as we get older, and people can often be heard saying something to the effect of “it’s my old age” or, “I’m not as quick as I used to be”. This can be linked to decreased mental and physical activity, a symptom of the time we live in where what we spend the bulk of our time doing requires us to sit and look at a screen that directs our thinking. It’s very much pointing us in the direction of Wall-E (shudders). But there is hope! In the same way that lifting weight is good for your bones and muscles, and eating a nutritious balanced diet is good for your skin, organs and all the internal processes, challenging your brain keeps it strong. Good mental workouts include puzzles, quizzes and creating - anything that keeps you thinking and problem solving really. A strong brain is a fast and healthy brain, and who doesn’t want that? I’m fully planning on doing everything I can do keep my mental facilities well into my glory days. Science Daily published a piece in April this year (still warm off the press) which says that maintaining mental stimulation over your lifetime (i.e. keeping your brain strong) can lower or delay the risk of Alzheimer’s. Future win!
Human creativity and the creator’s voice
We all have a unique way of speaking, both in person with our physical voice, but also when we create. The creators voice spans across all kinds of creative expression; sometimes it is called our style or vibe, but it is all the same thing, our unique way to express ourselves. And we can see it in the art we love; an artist will create a series of works that all have a similar feel, beyond the artistic style. Monet’s “Blue Phase” is a great example of this. The work created by Slices of Hope has a forming artistic style, but the voice is also taking shape, and at the moment it is sounding gentle, kind and inviting, which are very much the things needed right now, personally, but also out in the world.
When we use Generative AI to produce AI art it has no voice because there is no sense of the human experience. There is programmed bias, the source it is copying from or the voice you tell it to use. But no matter how good you are at telling AI what to do, it will never be your exact voice, and it could never fully communicate the feelings you want it to. There is a really interesting study on AI bias linked below, and don’t panic, it has charts! This nicely flows to the following point – inspiration.
Human creativity and inspiration
People are sticky; we go through life picking up experiences that shape us, and they add to our wisdom, fears, doubts and joys - everything life has to offer, and when we create, all of that comes to the surface like a palette and we use it to inspire our creativity - we just can't help it.
Many painters are inspired by personal relational pain (thinking about Brian from Spaced here!), musicians by the changing seasons, chefs by a culture they have experienced, woodworkers by natural forms. It is the combination of our experiences with our personality, loves and hates and everything else that makes you a unique human that results in creativity that cannot be replicated. It is alive, it is a small slice of who you are in that moment. It has soul. No amount of data, searching and rehashing can replicate that. People need people to create. We believe that Generative AI, which is all code, algorithms and programming, cannot truly create but can only repurpose what has gone before. It is well noted that Large Language Models are trained on existing works, but they cannot be trained on things like emotion, likes and dislikes or nostalgia, things that are deeply informed by, and connected to, hormones and experiences. To create is deeply and uniquely human.
Human creativity and environmental impact
When a person creates anything, they use the resources around them they have gathered, as well as some they have not, like electricity. They may even sip a few glasses of water (or other fuelling beverage of choice). That one person is having a one-person impact on the world. And with planning, that one person can reduce that impact by reusing resources, using recycled resources or choosing green energy suppliers etc. A new (to us) and really effective way we have been reducing paint waste is to have a piece of paper next to a project and using it to finish the paint on a brush rather than rinse it away; this prevents paint being poured away and creates a piece of ‘scrap art’ - it’s a win for everyone! A persons environmental impact, particularly when creating, is absolutely minimal and can be reduced through thoughtful actions.
Did you know that AI data centres can raise the local air temperature by 2°C? Neither did I. Did you know they need to use about a bottle of water to return just a 100-word response? Possibly, people talk about this one a lot. But! Did you know that data centres processing AI requests will triple their electricity use by 2030? Again, neither did I. That’s a big negative environmental impact for something so “useful”. Now, we’re not down on technology and we know that new technology takes time to evolve and improve, and there are already improvements in computer processing as a result of the rapid rollout of data centres, but the rollout is rapid and isn’t slowing down, and these impacts will continue; and, Big Corp being what it is, it will only implement improvements on the new data centres, not go back and makes changes (cynical much!). I love this planet, and hopefully you do too; it is full of wonder and delight; it’s lovely. Let’s do our best to keep it that way for us and for future us.
Human creativity and economic impact
Every person you know who is a professional creative has taken a long time to get there and they have a unique set of skills that cannot be replicated. They do a job, get paid for the job and then use that money to feed into the economy. But that is changing. Professional creatives are being replaced by Generative AI for all kinds of reasons, the most common being saving money. Some people just can’t afford creatives (although we got this far just fine) and others want more profits for Big Corp. Oops, I mean they are being financially efficient 😉. But there is always a cost, and that is increasingly people’s careers. Careers lost, careers not even started (I see you young people) or careers that have been forced to change. The BBC has a good short read on this that is linked below. New technology always means change and has forced people to adapt, but this change is more personal because it is impacting the essence of what it means to be human.
We’ve seen the impact of AI art on our own efforts when we sell at craft markets; on one occasion we sold opposite another artist who sold work that looked like ours but was all AI art; our hand painted scenes on slices of wood we cut and prepared pitted against their AI art printed and glued to slices they had bought. And because consumers are driven by price as much as anything, our work looked very expensive in comparison (it's not btw). It was a difficult day. We are even seeing craft market organisers getting wise and banning people from selling anything that has even a whiff of AI (or mass-produced import…) knowing it could cost them revenue, but having a stronger ethic than desire for money. And that is what sits under a lot of these points, the ethics.
Conclusion
Human creativity is supremely better in every possible way than anything that AI can generate; it has a net positive impact on mental health, wellbeing and cognitive function, even having the ability to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s; only human creativity can truly convey a voice and be imbued by experience; people creating have a significantly smaller impact on the planet, and they contribute to the economy.
To reiterate a point made near the beginning, it is the process that is actually creative, not the finished piece. The finished piece is called a creation exactly because it has been created.
So now to you; has your work been impacted by the rise of Generative AI? Are you a huge fan of Generative AI or AI art? Will this change how you view Generative AI or AI art? Have I missed anything? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic (there's a poll!), because people talking and sharing is how we learn and grow, and this post will now be part of your human experience, informing whatever creatively comes next for you.
And if you want to stay in the loop on future posts, but also news of where will be selling our work, tools we’re using and hot tips, subscribe to our newsletter in the link below.
Thanks for reading friends – love you, bye!
Are you a fan of Generative AI?
0%No way
0%All the way
All photography and artwork is owned by Jenny Holden. You can find her on Instagram here: Photography - https://www.instagram.com/jennywrenslens
Artwork - https://www.instagram.com/jennywrenspens
Further reading
Mental health
Mental Health UK post - https://mentalhealth-uk.org/news-and-insights/why-creativity-is-important-for-your-mental-health/
Journal of Positive Psychology article - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310764211_Everyday_creative_activity_as_a_path_to_flourishing (free to access PDF)
Angelo Pizzigallo Instagram - http://instagram.com/pizzigalloangelo
Generative artificial intelligence, human creativity, and art (free to access) https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/3/pgae052/7618478
Cognitive function
Science Daily article - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260414075648.htm
The creators voice
AI bias post - https://aimultiple.com/ai-bias
Inspiration
Brian from Spaced - https://youtu.be/brQw15Xz7Go?si=MNeiNBy3c7ZiXpyZ
Large Language Model training - https://medium.com/@moraneus/exploring-the-world-of-large-language-models-a-kids-friendly-guide-171c6db3b08f
Environment
Temperature is rising - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/11/how-much-heat-does-an-ai-data-centre-produce-and-where-are-they-located
Data Centre water use - https://techjournal.org/does-ai-use-water-data-centers
Data Centre electricity use - https://www.iea.org/news/data-centre-electricity-use-surged-in-2025-even-with-tightening-bottlenecks-driving-a-scramble-for-solutions?__cf_chl_f_tk=X_Lq_2J0uDD3Cq8kTpYuzdyj9nS7stNdhbOV1bNBqOI-1783089860-1.0.1.1-cWqdCnE4iA5UKFINe9r_vEDVoX2yCDk1ktSfNbGDoBo
Economics
Career impact of Generative AI - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8e9627w156o
Thank you for including so many resources! I love how you guys bring hope with your art, your spoken words, your actions, and now, your written words, too! You are just bringing sunshine to whatever you touch! ❤️ -jenney
Solid blog, well written, informative, interesting. Might use it as an example for my students in fact! Looking forward to the next one.
Very well written in a chatty and informative way. I didn’t take the poll because as I’m not a great artist, there may be ways I would used AI to do part of the work if I knew how to!! So my poll answer would be “sometimes”! Very informative. Thank you.