In the AI Era, If It Doesn't Exist, Build It: A New Weapon for Individual Creators

Hello, this is Reiji Kuga.

The other day, I was looking for a WordPress theme for a new blog I'm creating.

There are many high-performance themes available now that look good, are strong in SEO, and make writing articles easy.

While browsing through a few, I found some that seemed promising.

However, as I checked their features, I started to feel a sense of unease.

The blog I'm planning to build isn't just for listing articles. I want to connect it to my own personal AI workspace, preserve past articles and decisions, and cycle them into my next output.

Thinking about it that far, I realized it might be better to build what I need from scratch rather than forcing myself to fit into an existing theme.

Me, someone who can't write code, building a WordPress theme. A while ago, I probably wouldn't have even considered it.

More than wanting features, I was tired of repeating the same explanations

I am currently building my own personal AI workspace as well.

The trigger wasn't because I had a grand vision from the start.

It was because every time I used ChatGPT, I had to give the same explanation.

I was explaining every time what I was creating, what kind of work 'Crossroad' is, what I write on note, what decisions I made in the past, and why I abandoned certain ideas.

Every time my conversation with the AI changed, I had to explain everything from the beginning. I would even search through old documents and folders for past decisions I had forgotten myself.

Even though I was using convenient AI, the work of remembering hadn't decreased.

So, I wondered if I could build a place myself where I could save my work, projects, failures, and the reasons for my revisions.

That's where it started.

Now, the features are gradually increasing, such as saving deliverables, searching, scheduling publications, and linking with tasks.

However, writing this much might make it look like I was able to develop it easily by using AI.

In reality, it wasn't such a pleasant story.

I've fixed one thing, only for something else to stop working. I've given instructions over and over just to fix a single button.

It doesn't appear where I thought it would. Just when I think I've finally got it working, another screen breaks. The error is gone, but the behavior is slightly different from what I wanted.

AI writes code for us. It even offers suggestions for fixes.

However, we are the ones who must decide what the correct state should be.

Do I fix the bug right in front of me? Do I stop for a moment and rethink the design? Do I add a convenient-looking feature, or should I discard it for now?

Now that I can delegate the work, the number of decisions I have to make has actually increased.

Honestly, there are times when it would have been faster to use an existing service. If there is already something good available that fulfills the purpose, there is no need to force yourself to build it from scratch.

I don't want to build everything myself, either.

Even so, when what I truly need starts to drift away from existing frameworks, there is a limit to how much I can keep compromising.

At that point, instead of turning back at the entrance because it's outside my area of expertise, I've become able to try it out on a small scale first.

The new weapon for individual creators that I feel is not the AI itself.

It is the fact that I can now turn things I would have previously given up on into prototypes, even if I don't know if they can be completed.

There was no right answer for 'Crossroad' from the beginning either

Come to think of it, I was doing something similar even before AI appeared.

The metaverse drama 'Crossroad,' produced for Project Alive, wasn't started by being taught a perfected production method either.

Filming a romance drama in a metaverse space.

Moving avatars, matching them with separately recorded voices, and showing emotions through the camera.

I can explain it now, but when I started, there were so many things I didn't know.

Sometimes the avatar's movements were too big and didn't match the emotions of the conversation. Sometimes the voice was good, but it felt strange when layered with the video.

I had to stop a work I had already created, and after about a year, I remade the entire thing with a total of 61 people.

There were times along the way when I wondered if it was really necessary to go this far.

Even so, rather than waiting for the correct answers prepared by someone else, we have searched for our own methods. I don't think AI gave me the idea that "if it doesn't exist, make it."

It just expanded the scope of what I could do with that idea much further than before.

Creating a drama and building a system are not the same thing.

But the feeling of starting without knowing, and searching for the necessary form while failing, is somewhat similar.

Even if you can create more things, it won't decide the reason for creating them.

In the AI era, the areas that individual creators can touch have increased.

Text, images, videos, programs. Things that previously had to be outsourced to experts can now be tried by yourself.

This is a major change.

On the other hand, it is easy to fall into the state of creating just because you can.

While adding features that seem convenient, you might proceed without thinking about whether they are truly necessary. There were times when I felt like I was moving forward just by starting something that looked interesting.

I, too, have come close to making the act of creating itself the goal several times.

AI suggests methods, but it won't take responsibility for the meaning of creating them.

Is it something that truly moves your creation forward? Or do you just want to feel like you've started something new? That is something you still have to think about for yourself.

The AI workspace and WordPress theme I am building are not finished. There are parts where the purpose has changed while building, and I think there will be features that I will remove later.

Tonight, too, there are features on the screen that don't work yet and designs that have stopped halfway.

Looking at them, I wonder if I am making what I really wanted, or if I am just obsessed with the fact that I can make it.

I think I will end up thinking about this many times until it is finished.

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