The pleasure and peril of AI and the future of creativity

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The pleasure and peril of AI and the future of creativity 〰️

View fullsize Latest from THE GRAIN: What Bugs Me About AI This is a follow-up to my last piece about what it felt like to be photographed in crisis. A few people asked me why I wrote that piece now, and what it had to do with AI. As we start looking more close
View fullsize Good food, good company, and a Polaroid camera.
View fullsize Happy Mama Day to those who inspire and are inspired by the future. 💖
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View fullsize Thank you @issuesmagshop and @nickydearest for inviting me to lead the AI roundtable at the Issues Photo Portfolio Reviews. These are difficult conversations, especially when we are saturated with so much noise. Sometimes, we just need to ask the
View fullsize Latest from THE GRAIN SOMEONE HAS TO BE THERE: What it felt like to be photographed in crisis This was a difficult piece for me to publish. It’s personal and not something I often talk about. But it stayed with me for almost 30 years, and it
View fullsize Meet THE GRAIN’s Community Producer, Chrissy Grrrl. @chrissygrrrl A Toronto-based photographer, she helps build and shape the community, connecting with artists and contributors, supporting events, and bringing forward ideas as the platform g
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View fullsize My reflections on Tim Hetherington's Sleeping Soldiers, and what it means to be there. Read the essay at: thegrainai.substack.com (link in bio)
View fullsize TO EXPLAIN THE WORLD: Revisiting Restrepo Fifteen years after the death of photojournalist Tim Hetherington, THE GRAIN is returning to his work with a unique film screening. Restrepo (2010), co-directed with Sebastian Junger, is a close unmediated
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View fullsize It’s not Friday, it’s — AI Literacy Day! (see what I did there?) If you read that and thought AI slop, congratulations... you’re becoming AI literate. Today marks Canada’s first AI Literacy Day, led by @mediasmarts.ca
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View fullsize If you missed the Geoffrey Hinton × Amber Mac talk last night, I’m sharing my notes and the ideas that resonated with me. What stands out for you? This conversation felt different from other talks with the “Godfather of AI.”
View fullsize I was invited to give the keynote at the Realize Canada National Youth Summit on Episodic Disabilities and Employment, speaking about AI and the future of work. We explored creative agency, AI literacy in the workplace, and how emerging technologie
View fullsize Is there a photograph AI can’t make? These images by Alex Franklin were created in response to an assignment in Chris Buck’s Checking Focus critique group: Make an image that AI can’t. They capture the small, unresolved moments th
View fullsize LOVE vs AI: Why Be Lonely. A conversation about AI companionship and the future of intimacy. We talked about empathy, affection, addiction, grief bots, moral panic, and why messy human connection is still worth the effort. In a full room, we held
View fullsize Victoria Hetherington (author of The Friend Machine) was on @cbc's Metro Morning today talking about AI companionship and the questions at the heart of LOVE vs. AI. Tonight she joins Dr. Michael Inzlicht (UofT) for an intimate, in-person conversatio

THE GRAIN is an editorial platform and community hub that explores AI’s impact on creativity, culture and what it means to be human now.

FINDING THE FUTURE OF CREATIVITY

THE GRAIN was founded by Ronit Novak as a space for thinking through the impact of AI on creativity, culture, and how we connect with one another when authenticity is called into question.

She brings together artists, technologists, researchers, and educators, not for hot takes and easy answers, but to ask the right questions and lean into the nuance.

Through podcasts, editorial essays, and live events, THE GRAIN is on the front lines, examining how human authenticity and simulated experience interact.

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CONVERSATIONS

THE GRAIN Podcast features conversations about AI and creativity with artists, technologists, educators, and people working through these changes in real time. It’s about sitting with the complexity of what’s happening and trying to understand it from multiple angles.

Some conversations are practical, others more philosophical, but all are grounded in lived experience, not abstraction.

On the podcast, host Ronit Novak creates space for honest dialogue, surface new perspectives, and help you think more clearly about your place in this shifting landscape.

Episodes are available as video on YouTube and Substack, and as audio on Spotify, Apple, and all other major streaming platforms.

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ESSAYS

THE GRAIN Newsletter thinks through the impact of AI on creativity, culture, and authorship, slowly and in public. It’s about making sense of what’s changing, what’s at risk, and what still matters.

Each issue brings together essays, observations, and conversations drawn from Ronit’s work across media, photography, and AI, along with insights from artists, technologists, and others navigating these shifts in real time.

THE GRAIN Newsletter is there to help you see more clearly, ask better questions, and feel less alone in figuring it out.

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LIVE EVENTS

THE GRAIN Events are where these conversations move off the screen and into the room, thought through in real time, with other people.

They’re not about performance or easy answers. They’re about creating space to engage with what’s changing, what’s at risk, and what it means to be making work right now.

THE GRAIN Events create space for honest dialogue, surface new perspectives, and help you feel more oriented and connected with community in this shifting landscape.

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