Is AI's war on busywork a creativity killer? What the experts say

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Tech companies promote AI as a means of eliminating "busywork."
• Moderate amounts of boredom, however, can be fruitful.
• Also, humans can't be expected to be constantly productive.

One of the most pervasive marketing tropes pushed by AI companies in recent years has been a promise to eliminate "busywork." Once we've been liberated from the burden of mundane tasks, we'll be free to think big thoughts, pursue our most cherished goals, and build deeper human connections. That sales pitch implies that within every human being there's a wellspring of creativity, and that stretches of boredom and monotony at work are a dam that blocks us from tapping into it. Monotony gets stigmatized as the enemy of insight. 

But as is almost always the case with new technologies, reality is ...