What makes you human in the age of AI? As AI-generated music, images and AI slop fill our feeds, this episode is about AI anxiety, everyday creativity for our mental health, and the part of us that is irreplaceable. So much of what we scroll past is now made by machines, and many of us are actively looking for things made by real people.
In August, Australia's music charts banned songs made wholly by AI, after an AI cover of Madonna's Like a Prayer climbed the dance charts. The Australian Recording Industry Association said it wanted to promote the human nature of artistry. The flood of content like this is why Merriam-Webster chose slop as its 2025 word of the year. Slop is their word for low-quality digital content produced in large amounts by AI.
This moment brings The Inside Job, Out in the World to a close. Each week, I have taken one moment from out in the world and paired it with a past episode that speaks directly to what is underneath it. Because the work we do on this podcast, building Mental Fitness, self-worth and Self-Love from the inside out, is not done in isolation. It shows up in the world, in our culture, in our news.
After the introduction you will hear Episode 48, which I recorded a year ago. It is pure joy. I talk about AI directly and why I choose to treat it as a partnership and a collaboration. AI is task-orientated. We are not. AI needs us to exist. We do not need AI in order to exist. I share how everyday creativity rewires our brain and helps calm anxiety, with insight from Martha Beck, why most creative blocks are perfectionism in disguise, and why adults need play too. I'd like to be clear: the worries about AI and jobs are real, and they deserve their own serious conversation. This episode is about what makes us human.
If AI has left you feeling anxious, or life has left you feeling flat and uncreative, this conversation is for us. This series is not about the exceptional. It's about the human. About us as humans.
In this episode you'll learn:
- Why Australia banned AI-generated songs from its music charts
- What makes us human in the age of AI, and why I choose to treat AI as a partnership
- Why every one of us is creative, whatever our job title
- How everyday creativity rewires your brain and helps calm anxiety
- Martha Beck's insight on creativity as a balm for anxiety
- Why most creative blocks are perfectionism in disguise
- Why adults need play too, and what my childhood pile-ups taught me about joy
- One simple experiment to try this week: disrupt one automatic pattern
Connect with Lulu:
Website: https://www.luluessey.com/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucille-marie-essey/
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This is an inside job. Please share this episode with people you love. And follow while you are here 💛
