Too Much TV: Silicon Valley's War On Creativity

The real reason why Silicon Valley's elite love AI.

Photo by Rachael Gorjestani on Unsplash

Here’s everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, November 11th, 2025:

THE REAL REASON WHY SILICON VALLEY’S ELITE LOVE AI
I have a phone with a camera that has a higher resolution than I could possibly need for anything short of taking surveillance photos from a distant stakeout. And yet, I am unable to take a selfie that doesn’t make my head look weirdly out of proportion. And that is because, despite all the technology I have available, I am not a photographer. Anyone can point a camera and shoot away. But it takes someone with that innate skill of knowing just how to compose a shot, how to frame a subject in the optimal way to produce that perfect photo.

I spent some time covering Silicon Valley in the years leading up to the last tech bust, and one thing I learned was that most successful people don’t trust creativity. It’s an ephemeral idea that can’t be defined, and that drives many powerful men (and it’s almost always men) absolutely bonkers. If you are a wealthy and successful tech lord, you possess an innate belief that you can do anything better than anyone else. Because you once did one thing very well.

And creativity doesn’t work that way. It’s not definable, it can’t be replicated with X’s and O’s. Creativity comes not from planning, but from a witches’ brew of God-given skills, a unique life experience, and the ability to continue to absorb new influences and grow. You have to learn from failure and be willing to explore all manner of potential creative dead ends until you eventually find your way. And even the most complex machine is incapable of replicating that learning process. You can teach a machine to spit out approximations of creativity, but there is a hollowness there that is difficult to articulate but also instantly identifiable.

There are a number of reasons why so many Silicon Valley executives are promoting our supposedly inevitable AI overlords. Primarily, they plan to make a lot of money. Because why not? There are still a couple of percentage points of GDP still being hoarded by everyone who’s not a billionaire.

But another attraction is that they have convinced themselves AI can accurately capture the magic of creativity. Every day, I read article after article warning that I need to get ahead of the AI disruption. That if I don’t embrace all that AI can do for me, I will be left in the dustbins of history, like those people who used to make a living in the 1980s writing punchlines for “Dial-A-Joke.”

Those Silicon Valley oligarchs look at technology and see it as the vehicle that will provide them with the artistry they lack deep in their souls. They argue that AI will soon be writing the next great movie, TV show, or book. They can’t comprehend that something can have value even if it is beyond their capability.

I recently saw a quote from a successful venture capitalist who confidently argued that while most people would lose their jobs due to AI, he wouldn’t. Because being a venture capitalist requires a skillset that can’t be replicated by a computer. Which makes sense, because what are the odds that a computer would learn how to examine a bunch of spreadsheets and mission statements and determine which company would make the best investment? It’s that lack of self-awareness that exemplifies the tech industry’s rush towards AI.

If they can’t do something, they can’t accept that like any normal person. It must be something with no value and easy to replicate. Because otherwise, wouldn’t they - the world’s most magnificent people - be able to do it? That’s why you frequently hear Elon Musk touting this upcoming tech utopia in which most people wouldn’t have to work and all of their needs would be provided for free of charge.

He can’t comprehend the idea of the dignity of work. That anyone could find meaning in cooking for others, or painting a landscape, or providing care for someone who needs it. He doesn’t understand the basic human desire to build a life that has value. For ourselves and for others. And the arts are a central part of that world.

AI is useful for many things. It can help eliminate friction in the creative process. It can free up creatives to spend more time working on the things AI can’t do. Things that require that magical combination of intelligence, experience, and feelings.

I recently spoke with someone who works at an agency that uses AI to write the initial coverage of scripts submitted to them. And he told me they do some straightforward things reasonably well. The AI can highlight major logic flaws, clunky dialogue, and other factors that make the ultimate decision an easy “no.” But that’s not enough. “A computer can’t tell me if a script just sings,” he explained. “It can’t tell me if this is a script I won’t be able to put down, and that’s what makes for a great project.” In the end, emotion and creativity can’t be defined by looking at the data.

And that is something our tech overlords innately understand, even if they often don’t possess the self-awareness to admit it to themselves. There’s no better example of that than something that recently happened on Elon Musk’s X.

Author Joyce Carol Oates tweeted this at Musk yesterday, and aside from it being the literary equivalent of an assassination, it also perfectly articulated the problem with technology in general and AI specifically:

And Musk’s response provided a clear indication of how deeply he felt this criticism. By the end of the day, he was running paid ads for a piece in which he provided his list of recommended books. As if to prove, “See, I can be all thinky-thinky too!” But he isn’t fooling us, or even in the darkest parts of his evening, himself. He knows the type of creativity Oates possesses is beyond him. And yet, rather than accepting he can’t do everything, he and his Silicon Valley brethren spend their days attempting to use technology to fill the artist-sized holes in their souls. If they can’t do it, the problem isn’t with them; it’s with the process.

Journalism is a lot like Hollywood in that our professions are endangered by a combination of greed, hubris, and envy. AI enthusiasts can scrape my content without my permission, drain off traffic by creating knock-off content, and cut deals with big media companies in an effort to shut down every independent voice.

But AI can’t replace me. Anymore than it can replace Hollywood’s actors, directors, writers, and other creatives. At best, AI can create a cheap facsimile of creativity that will amuse some people in the same way that people still pay to see Elvis impersonators and men with a beard and a big top hat reciting speeches first given by Lincoln.

Don’t let them fool you. AI isn’t here to set you free. It’s here to eliminate your options and, as a bonus, convince all of those fragile, uncreative man-children that being an artist can be easily duplicated. And if that’s the case, then they won’t feel like soulless failures.

AI is a tool. But it is not sentient, it is not human. It is an extremely complex calculator whose greatest contribution to creativity is inventing facts and figures when it can’t provide the correct answer.

AI is the ultimate end product of its flawed creators. It’s smart, but often in some supremely dumb ways.

POLITICS IS POP CULTURE NOW
I’m a bit late getting to this Matt Stone and Trey Parker interview in the NY Times. But I wanted to highlight this passage, because it really resonated with me:

The creators also regularly had conversations about returning to traditional “South Park” high jinks and abandoning MAGA, until they realized that “there’s no getting away from this,” Mr. Parker said.

“It’s like the government is just in your face everywhere you look,” he continued. “Whether it’s the actual government or whether it is all the podcasters and the TikToks and the YouTubes and all of that, and it’s just all political and political because it’s more than political. It’s pop culture.”

This is a variation of the answer I give readers who complain that I delve in politics too much or focus on the business of the industry instead of writing about every episode of <insert their favorite TV show>. I do write a lot about TV, including review

ODDS AND SODS
* Honest Renovations has been renewed for a fourth season by The Roku Channel.

* I don’t know about the show Halef, but based on this trailer I’m likely to watch it when it becomes available in the U.S.

* Outlander‘s eighth and final season will premiere Friday, March 6th on Starz.

* The soon-to-be MSNBC-rebranded MS Now has signed a deal with AccuWeather for forecasts and access to its meteorologist expertise. Accuweather will also provide services to sister financial network CNBC.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT’S COMING TODAY AND TOMORROW

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH:
* American Heart In WWI: A Carnegie Hall Tribute (PBS)
* Beat Bobby Flay: Holiday Throwdown (Food Network)
* Hoarding For The Holidays Series Premiere (HGTV)
* Mysteries Unearthed With Danny Trejo (History)
* Surviving Mormonism With Heather Gay (Bravo)

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH:
* A Merry Little Ex-Mas (Netflix)
* Being Eddie (Netflix)
* Body Cam Season Premiere (Investigation Discovery)
* Chicago Fire Fall Finale (NBC)
* Chicago Med Fall Finale (NBC)
* Chicago PD Fall Finale (NBC)
* Dynamite Kiss Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Eloa The Hostage: Live On TV (Netflix)
* Mrs. Playmen Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Palm Royale Season Premiere (Apple TV)
* Playdate (Amazon Prime)
* Selling The OC Season Premiere (Netflix)
* The Golden Bachelor Season Two Finale (ABC)
* The Murder Tapes Season Premiere (Investigation Discovery)

SEE YOU EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING!