AI software tools have come a long way since the release of ChatGPT. Here's a list of the kinds of things you can create with AI today, some examples of what others have created, and lists showing the wide variety of tools you can use. It's a bigger universe than most people realize, and you can mix‑and‑match these categories depending on your goals.
Creative content encompasses a wide range of genres and forms, allowing writers to explore their imagination and express their thoughts in unique ways, artists to create artwork and illustrations, musicians to produce melodies and song lyrics, etc.
There are a wide variety of AI tools available covering the many uses of communication and the written word.
There are many examples of AI-generated creative works that have achieved critical acclaim, commercial success, or significant impact. The best AI content is no longer defined by how closely it mimics a human, but by how it creates new aesthetics. These are visuals and sounds that are uniquely AI (surreal, infinite, and hyper-detailed) that a human could never have conceived alone.
The Frost from Waymark Creative Labs: The World's First Gen-AI Short Film. One of the first short films where every frame was generated by AI. It used a unique, surreal aesthetic to tell a coherent narrative, proving that AI can sustain a director's eye throughout a piece.
Sora's Air Head: Created by the production company Shy Kids. This short film about a man with a yellow balloon for a head demonstrated consistent character physics and emotional storytelling. It remains the gold standard for high-end generative cinematography.
Music Videos: Artists like Washed Out released official music videos (e.g., "The Hardest Part") created entirely with OpenAI's Sora, showcasing infinite zoom transitions that would be physically impossible or prohibitively expensive to film traditionally.
While many use LLMs for emails and other writing projects, several ventures have pushed the boundaries of AI as a literary co-author.
The Death of an Author by Aidan Marchine. A meta-fictional murder mystery written using a suite of AI tools. It was critically reviewed by major outlets not as a gimmick, but as a genuine exploration of the "propmt-engineer-as-author" concept.
The 1% Rule in Poetry. Computational poets using models like Claude 3.5 and Gemini 1.5 Pro have produced works that have won blind poetry competitions, noted for their ability to handle complex metaphors and New Yorker style abstract imagery.
Data Center Stories is AI World's take, powered by Grok, of a fictional drama of data center cooling as recounted by leading non-fiction authors.
This past year witnessed AI music where the quality became indistinguishable from studio recordings.
BBL Drizzy (Metro Boomin / Udio): A viral moment where a top-tier producer used an AI-generated soul sample (created in Udio) as the foundation for a global hip-hop trend. This marked the first time AI-generated vocals and melodies were used as prestige samples in mainstream music.
Synthetic Soundtracks: The rise of personalized gaming soundtracks, where models generate reactive, orchestral scores that change based on a player's heart rate or in-game actions, representing a new form of living creative content.
The Post-Photography Movement: Artists like Boris Eldagsen (who famously rejected a Sony World Photography Award for an AI image) have created "promptography" that challenges the definition of a photograph.
Architectural Concepting: Using Midjourney v6 and DALL-E 3, architects like Manas Bhatia have created Bio-Futuristic City concepts that have influenced urban planning discussions, moving AI art from social media feeds into professional design portfolios.
Every AI tool listed below offers either a free plan or a free trial with no credit card required, allowing you to explore their features and functionality without any commitment. Most tools have subscription plans for advanced users.
Creative resource pages on AI World:
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