Maybe this sounds dramatic, but I think some people here will understand what I mean. I’m writing this because I wanted to remind people who may be struggling that there is a future out there worth making it to.
My generation got dealt a really nasty hand honestly. Coming from a psychology background, mental health crises are everywhere, along with brutal job markets, impossible housing, and burnout before life even properly starts. A lot of people feel like they are just surviving, but for what?
And then AI appeared.
Of course, a huge chunk of people focus on the scary side. Automation, layoffs, identity loss, all that. I get it. The transition will probably be messy as hell, which is honestly a huge GULP moment as someone who just graduated from university after working in mental healthcare and knows that technology does not automatically translate to better quality of life.
But I think AI is different, and I wanna talk about the other side for a second. The side that may connect to people like me.
For me, AI feels like the first glimpse of freedom, not “the death of meaning.”
For example to visualize it, I have had an original character named Em in my head for years. I drew her, wrote stories and books around her, made music tied to her, and even made rough 3D models myself. She is basically stitched across my entire life creatively.
Images are just a personal example of what I mean: my own OC/art → rough 3D model → AI-assisted visualization. AI did not invent the character. It helped me finally see her in a world I imagined. Also yes, I let GPT cover her a bit more for Reddit SFW and somehow it cooked lmao.
And just like that, I can suddenly actually SEE the things I imagined before and show them to people.
For example, I’ve been experimenting with Cyberpunk-style scenes, DLC-like concepts, music, lore, and visual prototypes. Entire worlds I could never realistically build alone before because I do not have a studio, infinite money, a giant team, or consistent health and energy. And also because this is “just a hobby” while having to survive in capitalism.
The wall between imagination and creation is starting to collapse, and that realization hit me like a truck recently.
For the first time in years, I can actually imagine the future with a smile on my face.
Not like “haha artists replaced” or “everyone loses jobs.” Honestly, I think we need to be kind to people who are scared, because many of them worked incredibly hard to get where they are, like when recent grads are watching their job prospects mutate in real time too.
But for the first time ever, it feels like ordinary people might actually get tools powerful enough to bring the worlds inside them into reality.
Giving wings to ideas that were stuck on the ground.
I think a lot of depressed, isolated, or burned out people see AI and feel something they have not felt in years, which is hope.
Not because we hate humanity, even if the world does feel awful sometimes.
But because the current system already leaves a lot of people exhausted and creatively locked out of life.
And then suddenly these tools appear and you realize, holy shit, maybe one person really COULD make games, movies, music, worlds, stories, experiences, becoming their own independent small studio.
Especially with UBI hopefully on the horizon, so even if you are not successful in selling attention, you could still create what you love. My mom for example is an artist and she loves abstract painting, but people often do not buy it in our country because they want “real things.” Landscapes, objects, something recognizable. And I think about that a lot. How much creativity gets buried because the market does not reward it?
I come from psychology, and I really wanna study this one day, because I think people underestimate how psychologically massive this shift could become. Not only productivity-wise, but identity, creativity, motivation, emotional expression, hope, agency, AI companions, and access to support.
One of the careers I originally wanted was becoming a therapist, not because of money, because that usually sucks in these roles, but because I wanted to help people avoid going through some of the things I experienced growing up.
And realizing AI systems could potentially be there for someone at 3 AM during panic, loneliness, or crisis, when no human is available at all?
That makes me excited.
I mean, a lot of people will still choose human therapists for the human factor. And that matters. But having access to support when nobody else is there is marvelous to me.
I know some people will think this sounds naive or like a self-hype rant of a depressed researcher/therapist.
Maybe it is : )
But tbh?
I would rather live in a world where ordinary people get godlike creative tools than one where imagination stays locked behind corporations, studios, gatekeeping, and money forever.
AI is one of the first things in years that makes me excited to stay alive long enough to see what humanity becomes.
ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN.