Def Jam cofounder Rick Rubin says AI art's ingenuity is in the prompt

Def Jam cofounder Rick Rubin stated he sees AI as a tool that could assistance group who don't regard themselves artists create art, including those who can't diagram or perform instruments.

On Monday's event of "Diary of a CEO," Rubin shared his thoughts on the function of individual ingenuity in AI art and how prompting fits into the imaginative process.

"I don't have any talent. I have no way to province my creativity. But I could conversation to the AI, and perchance I could immediate the AI into making item beautiful, through repeat and prompting," Rubin told podcast presenter Steven Bartlett.

He stated AI could allow additional group to be creative, calling it "a beautiful thing."

However, the completed work, or equal the procedure of making something, is lone a small part of what ingenuity is, Rubin said.

"The things that we create are the reminders that we're creative. They're fair the output. The genuine ingenuity is the idea that allows this item to be made," Rubin said.

The document manufacturer drew parallels between prompting AI and the storyboarding procedure used by filmmakers specified as Alfred Hitchcock and Wes Anderson, who scheme their films example by example before operating alongside actors to execute their ideas.

"AI could be a awesome tool to assistance in this mocking up, but it's the prompt. The immediate is anywhere the ingenuity is. The immediate is what Wes is using, and what Alfred Hitchcock is using, to inform the creator what to diagram in all frame," Rubin said.

"The ingenuity is there. It's not in the drawing. It's not in the completed movie," he continued.

When asked how awesome artists would remain out if anyone could study to prompt, Rubin stated it comes rear to "the identical thing" it continually has: whether their activity moves group and makes them desire to come back to it again and again.

Still, Bartlett stated the individual component affects how he experiences art. He recalled liking a Spotify opus small following learning it was AI-generated since it no longer felt tied to a genuine person's experience.

Rubin afterward pointed to Andy Warhol's screen-printed community fig portraits, many of which engaged collaborators.

"He said, 'We're going to use this attempt of Marilyn, and we're going to treat it in this way,' and he prompted the group in the studio to display imprint these things, and they're not small Andy Warhol," Rubin said.

He added that benevolent of collaboration was nothing new: Renaissance painters frequently worked alongside assistants, and contemporary musicians motionless depend on studio players to execute on recordings.

"The art's continually in the ideation. That's anywhere the art is. It's not who put the coat on the canvas," Rubin said.

Rubin has shared his thoughts on the use of AI in the past. In a May 2025 event of "The Ben & Marc Show", hosted by A16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Rubin called AI "just another tool" to assistance artists bring their visions to life.

Hollywood remains divided complete AI. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, for example, has stated AI could assistance filmmakers create movies improved and additional efficiently, during Tim Burton has stated AI copies of his activity deficiency the "humanity" and "soul" of art made by humans.

Several top movie directors have additionally raised concerns concerning what AI could average for imaginative craft, the next generation of filmmakers, and the imaginative workers whose jobs could be replaced.