Def Jam cofounder Rick Rubin said he sees AI as a tool that could help people who don’t consider themselves artists make art, including those who can’t draw or play instruments.
On Monday’s episode of “Diary of a CEO,” Rubin shared his thoughts on the role of human creativity in AI art and how prompting fits into the creative process.
“I don’t have any talent. I have no way to express my creativity. But I could talk to the AI, and maybe I could prompt the AI into making something beautiful, through iteration and prompting,” Rubin told podcast host Steven Bartlett.
He said AI could enable more people to be creative, calling it “a beautiful thing.”
However, the finished work, or even the process of making something, is only a small part of what creativity is, Rubin said.
“The things that we make are the reminders that we’re creative. They’re just the output. The real creativity is the idea that allows this thing to be made,” Rubin said.
The record producer drew parallels between prompting AI and the storyboarding process used by filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Wes Anderson, who plan their films frame by frame before working with actors to execute their ideas.
“AI could be a great tool to assist in this mocking up, but it’s the prompt. The prompt is where the creativity is. The prompt is what Wes is using, and what Alfred Hitchcock is using, to tell the artist what to draw in each frame,” Rubin said.
“The creativity is there. It’s not in the drawing. It’s not in the finished movie,” he continued.
When asked how great artists would stand out if anyone could learn to prompt, Rubin said it comes back to “the same thing” it always has: whether their work moves people and makes them want to return to it again and again.
Still, Bartlett said the human element affects how he experiences art. He recalled liking a Spotify song less after learning it was AI-generated because it no longer felt tied to a real person’s experience.
Rubin then pointed to Andy Warhol’s screen-printed celebrity portraits, many of which involved collaborators.
“He said, ‘We’re going to use this shot of Marilyn, and we’re going to treat it in this way,’ and he prompted the people in the studio to screen print these things, and they’re not less Andy Warhol,” Rubin said.
He added that kind of collaboration was nothing new: Renaissance painters often worked with assistants, and modern musicians still rely on studio players to perform on recordings.
“The art’s always in the ideation. That’s where the art is. It’s not who put the paint on the canvas,” Rubin said.
Rubin has shared his thoughts on the use of AI in the past. In a May 2025 episode of “The Ben & Marc Show”, hosted by A16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Rubin called AI “just another tool” to help artists bring their visions to life.
Hollywood remains divided over AI. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, for example, has said AI could help filmmakers make movies better and more efficiently, while Tim Burton has said AI copies of his work lack the “humanity” and “soul” of art made by humans.
Several top movie directors have also raised concerns about what AI could mean for artistic craft, the next generation of filmmakers, and the creative workers whose jobs could be replaced.
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