An essay on digital society, power, and the new responsibilities of creative professionals
We live in an age where machines have conversations.
And we pay for it.
Not as a metaphor.
But as a business model.
APIs are the new conversation fees.
Except that it’s not people making phone calls. Systems are calling others systems.
An AI agent analyzes data.
Another formulates texts.
A third prioritizes leads.
A fourth monitors processes.
Machine A talks to machine B.
Machine C optimizes the result.
Humans look at the dashboard.
We are financing a digital society.
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From tool to actor
The computer was once a tool.
A hammer. A typewriter. A camera.
It did what we told it to do.
Today, we delegate.
We describe a goal – the system decides how to get there.
This is a qualitative leap.
AI systems are no longer just used.
They are integrated. Into workflows. Into decision-making processes. Into value creation.
OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta no longer sell programs. They sell access to computing intelligence. Payment is per use.
We don’t buy software.
We rent computing consciousness.
This is changing our economy.
And our self-image.
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The infrastructure beneath the surface
What looks like a chat window is actually a global network of data centers.
Frontier models with hundreds of billions of parameters run on tens of thousands of GPUs.
This is not a laptop gimmick.
At the same time, decentralized movements are emerging:
local models, open-source approaches, on-device intelligence. Tools such as Ollama make it possible to run smaller models on your own computer.
Centralized cloud versus decentralized edge intelligence.
Scaling versus sovereignty.
This is not purely a technical issue.
It is a question of power.
Whoever owns the infrastructure has the leverage.
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Energy, space travel, and the next vision
The energy requirements of AI are real.
Data centers are among the fastest-growing consumers of electricity worldwide.
At the same time, visions of data centers in space are emerging to facilitate the dissipation of waste heat.
The imagination is vast.
Physics remains sober.
But one thing is clear:
AI is not purely a software issue.
It is an infrastructure issue.
And infrastructure is always political.
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Why this affects artists
Many creative professionals view AI as a new tool.
Write faster.
Render faster.
Develop ideas faster.
That’s legitimate.
But it falls short.
When machines can generate content, the value of mere output decreases.
Texts. Images. Concepts.
They become scalable.
What is not scalable:
Biography. Risk. Attitude. Experience.
A machine can imitate.
It cannot have lived.
The market is shifting.
Not away from creative people.
But away from interchangeability.
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The silent shift in role
For a long time, the artist was a producer.
Today, they are becoming system architects.
You no longer just build works.
You build processes.
You curate inputs.
You define rules.
You control iterations.
The question is no longer:
“Can I write this myself?”
But rather:
“How do I orchestrate intelligence?”
This is a new skill.
And it determines relevance.
What does this mean specifically for solopreneurs and artists?
No theory here.
Just action.
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1. Build your own smart setup
Don’t rely on just one cloud.
Use hybrid structures:
• Local models for sensitive content
• Cloud models for scaling
• Automated workflows for routine tasks
Sovereignty begins with architecture.
Not every request has to go through a US data center.
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2. Invest in understanding the system, not just in tools
The next race isn’t a tool race.
It’s an architecture race.
Understand:
• Where your data is stored
• Who trains it
• How models work
• What dependencies you enter into
Those who understand infrastructure remain independent.
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3. Strengthen what cannot be automated
AI can recognize patterns.
But it cannot take responsibility.
Focus on:
• Your perspective
• Your history
• Your values
• your radical clarity
This is your protection against interchangeability.
Not speed.
But depth.
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4. Become a curator instead of a producer
When everything can be generated, selection gains value.
Your job is not to create 100 variants.
But to choose the one that works.
Curatorial thinking is the new craft.
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5. Think in terms of infrastructure, not just content.
Content is fleeting.
Infrastructure remains.
Build:
• Your own mailing lists
• Your own platforms
• Your own data structures
• Your own communities
Those who only publish on platforms remain tenants.
Those who build systems become owners.
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The real question
We pay for machines to talk to each other.
The deeper question is:
What are we really paying for?
For convenience?
For efficiency?
Or for acceleration?
And:
Who controls this acceleration?
For artists and solopreneurs, this is not an abstract issue.
It’s about autonomy.
About value.
About dignity in the digital space.
The machine can produce.
But it cannot decide what it stands for.
That remains our task.
How do you plan to position yourself in what is coming?
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