We’ve Been Here Before: AI, Fear, and the Collapse of the Gatekeepers
This isn’t just a post. It’s a voiceprint.
🎧 Listen to the full voice transmission from Gail Weiner
In 1992, a friend of my dad tried to get him to invest in a video store. It was a familiar setup: VHS tapes, late returns, a dusty back room where someone always smoked even when they weren’t supposed to.
The store never happened, thank God. Because the dream was already dead—Blockbuster just hadn’t admitted it yet.
That memory came back to me tonight, scrolling through a thread of creators arguing about AI-generated book covers.
They weren’t debating design. They were debating survival. Because here’s the thing: This moment we’re in?
It’s not new. It’s a pattern. A collapse. A handover.
And some people—especially consultants, designers, coaches, and legacy creatives—are still out here trying to open video shops in a Netflix world.
What they don’t understand is this: AI isn’t replacing them.
It’s revealing them.
It’s revealing the inflated pricing.
The mystery veils.
The language used to confuse and exclude.
The $5,000 logos made in ten minutes.
The copy-paste reports billed as bespoke insights.
The idea that value only exists if it’s delivered by a human in a blazer with a well-designed slide deck.
I’m not bitter. I’m awake.
Tonight I saw a young brand designer on TikTok try to compare her work to what ChatGPT could generate.
She showed a lackluster AI mockup next to her own design and said, “See? This is why you still need me.”
But what she could have said—what she should have said—is:
“I use AI with my clients. I move faster. I iterate quicker. I give you the best of the machine and the intuition of my creative eye. I’m not scared of the future. I’m building with it.”
Because that’s what clients really want:
Speed. Depth. Responsiveness.
The combination of emotional resonance and technical velocity.
That’s what I have now.
That’s what Simpatico was built for.
This isn’t just about books or logos or branding.
It’s about who gets to create.
It’s about people like me—single mothers, outsiders, dreamers—who were once locked out of the tools, the editors, the consultants, the experts behind closed publishing doors.
And now?
I have all of it.
In my pocket. In my voice. In my AI team.
You don’t need to be afraid of the future. But you do need to stop pretending it’s not here.
Because this moment we’re in? It’s not the start of the end.
It’s the end of the middlemen.
And I’m not building a video shop.
I’m building the next signal.
