Smashing Frames

2025-12-12 15:13:51

Something from nothing

I am not a talented person, I’ve never been called “gifted” or anything like that. Anything I can do, anything I achieved took a lot of work and stubbornness to achieve. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that I’m “selfmade” and that my position in society, my access to resources, etc. had nothing to do with it – quite the opposite. As a white heterosexual cis-man in Germany I have started live on easy mode. But I do not come from a wealthy background or one with large networks and access to power. I am not associated to any organization that gives me “respectability” or “relevance”. Just a dude with a website who sometimes writes a few things that luckily people read and that got me some opportunities.

But those opportunities did take a long time to materialize. Like the first 5 to 10 years of me writing anything nobody gave a fuck. Which is probably good, there must be many dumb takes in there. But you learn and grow (hopefully) and today I have a modicum of visibility and a handful of people who read what I write and sometimes even pass it on to others. But it took 15 to 20 years to get there. It was a lot of work.

When we talk about “AI” these days, we usually are not really talking about material systems and their actual properties. We talk about a vision, a narrative. About a hope maybe? The hope that we have machines now to get something from nothing.

In the beginning of 2025 Mikey Shulman (CEO of Suno, one of those websites where you can generate AI muzak) guested in a podcast and – maybe accidentally – framed the conversation on “AI” perfectly in two terms. Shulman was talking about his service and how it was democratizing music and whatnot. Let’s look at a quote from the interview.:

“And so that is first and foremost giving everybody the joys of creating music and this is a huge departure from how it is now. It’s not really enjoyable to make music now“

Did you see the two relevant words? Here’s another quote:

“I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music.“

Now you might think that this statement is a bit … ridiculous. Most people make music for fun (because very few people can live off of it). They make it because they like it or because they just need to express something and music is their language. Music is a business – sure – but it’s also a Hobby (remember those: Things people do just cause they enjoy them without making money off of them?). But joy/fun is not the word I mean. It’s the distinction of creating and making.

Shulman calls using his slop-machine creating (which brings joy) and what other people do making (which nobody likes). I find this distinction revealing but also in a way counterintuitive: Isn’t it this big cultural norm to take pride in your work? That “hard work” is something dignified? Is that not the whole foundation of the “founder”/”entrepreneur” (I always feel like I need to take a shower after having typed that word) and how important they are narrative?

Creating in this understanding is exactly the idea to get something from nothing. Just think it and it exists. There is no process, no obstacle, no materiality, no challenge or struggle. Just the pure joy of creation. I won’t even get into the religious undertones of that distinction and how using “AI” is framed as godlike even though that would probably be fruitful as well. In this reading the “joy” comes from having the artifact and all that comes from that (like being able to sell it, use it, present it to others in order to gain social recognition, etc.). The joy is maximum unbound productivity. Because that’s what everything we do is for, right? Producing. Making a number go up. Creating means decoupling objects from the process of their making, decoupling them from the resources needed for them to be made, decoupling from the work that others needed to put into the systems enabling the creation. It’s the whole “do not let the real world, the other people in it tough me” thing that defines so much of tech bro logic.

In contrast making is about the process. Sure, there’s also something at the end, and artifact, something you might want to have. But the process itself is always part of it. Making is not just about having a thing it’s about the transformative experience of being in this world, interacting with its objects, properties, with other people in order to bring something into existence that means something to it. And every one of those processes leaves a mark on you. Something you learned, something you’ll remember. That cool trick you found in doing something smarter. Or (as it often was and is in my case) a wound or scar of where you fucked up. Making is part of what allows you to become you, to be you. You are in the process, not just the object at the end and its potential use or sale.

And I think this distinction shows why “AI” and capitalism are so deeply intertwined and why there probably is not really a leftist version of it: Capitalism wants to produce more and more with as little cost as possible to create growth and therefore value for those owning capital. “AI” is that: Don’t put anything in really and get something that might be passable to sell. You cannot get better than that really (from a capitalist viewpoint).

But even when thinking about how there is a leftist case to be made for automation (which I think there is) does that fit? Is the leftist case for automation “a lot of shitty products”? No – the point would be to produce the high quality goods people need in a way that is sustainable while still giving people more time to do things they enjoy. Like making music.

“AI” claims that making things is for suckers. But a leftist case for automation only makes sense if it opens up time and space for people to spend their time on things they enjoy. To participate in processes that enhance their lives, their connections to others.

I think that the focus on creating is just the little capitalist devil sitting on our shoulders telling us to produce more.

I think the most radical act today is to just make something. Especially if you are not good at it or if it’s a bit of a struggle. Draw if you’re not good at it. Play the piano even though you’re not great. Make something just for the fun of being in this world, touching it, being in it. Becoming you. Let this radicalize you a bit.

Fuck creation. Love making.

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Friction and not being touched

The journalist Karen Hao – who published an absolutely fantastic book about OpenAI called “Empire of AI” recently – coined (as far as I know) one of the best terms for describing modern “AI” systems: Everything Machines.

^{tante (Smashing Frames)}