"WE ARE LOOKING FOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER" written in Microsoft Paint on a large billboard.

nobody wants to be "just okay" anymore, nobody wants to "put something together real quick" anymore. the billboard shown above was a prime example of mediocrity at its finest, and was rewarded greatly for it. the image went viral and inspired a handful of replicas that you can find with a quick google search.

going on facebook dot com in 2026 shows exactly what I mean. what was charming small businesses with their own identities and brands turned into homogeneous AI images with the same style, mistakes, and laziness. the "AI Content" badge on the facebook post acting as a form of shame to the shameless. everything looks the same now, its these bright and bold color schemes with the bubble fonts and oversaturation. theres false advertising contractors, unappetizing fake food, local high schools switching to AI flyers instead of Canvas, you'll find it all in your local small town's facebook group.

its annoying and I don't like it. it signals a lack of care for whatever you're trying to promote.

the school thing was whats really been screwing with my head as of late. the high school I graduated from uses AI imagery for every social post now. they have like a full program for fine arts, art classes are a required part of the curriculum required to graduate. how does one not get demotivated to continue being passionate with their work when their own administrators don't care.

AI music might just be worse

I'm a music lover to my core, most of my waking moments are surrounded by the artform. I help run an independent music label, even the music business side of logistics and distribution are incredibly interesting.

reducing the music artform to a prompt is a disgusting and disappointing trend we as humans are moving towards.

AI in music isn't a tool, at least right now its not. if you're completely replacing the production process with prompting, you're not using it as a tool. and using Suno is the worst crime.

being a mediocre artist is just part of the process of learning and getting better as an artist. its always better to be just okay and learning than replacing the sacred workflow of creating art with a machine.

most would call me a big fat hypocrite

and I'd probably agree somewhat. you'll never see me post AI generated imagery for replacing brand assets, or in general. you'll never see me use AI music generation services.

but I do enjoy using (and think it's required for the future of computing) LLMs for agentic code work and deep research. both let me learn faster and better than anything I've done before.

I'm a self taught programmer, I started learning programming when I was 12, I was teaching myself Linux when I was even younger to setup Minecraft servers¹ for me and my friends. programming is in my blood, ever since I was a child I've been a computer-boy. I always knew this was what I was going to be doing with my life. and agentic coding and researching tools have accelerated my learning, and helped me build things in a higher quality than anything I've written before.

there's no doubt that this is the future we're going towards, if I'm not proficient with the latest and greatest models, I'm falling behind. I'm also just interested in LLM development and agent harnesses and tech in general. I like learning how they work and how they're improving.

all that to be said, I think agentic coding and deep research is fundamentally different than AI generated images and music. these "Diffusion" models are way different in terms of what you gain and lose vs. LLM models.

what you lose in agentic coding is syntax

what you lose in AI images & music is personality

so..

we need to think twice on the development of these AI image & music services. its not a positive trajectory we're heading towards for the future.

and developers of these services, you have to listen to the people you're trying to replace. artists don't want these services, artists aren't interested in replacing the production workflow with a prompt.

sorry to maybe beat a dead horse, but I needed this out of my brain and onto a page. its hard seeing the AI images especially take over my local town timeline.

lets get together and be 'just okay'.