Why AI images don’t stick.

There’s a strange thing I’ve noticed about AI-generated imagery.

We’re seeing more images than ever before, beautiful, surreal, highly detailed, and yet most of them vanish the second we scroll past. They don’t stick. They don’t cut deep. They don’t go viral in the way you might expect. Other than a few early hits (remember the Pope in the puffa jacket with those mutant hands?), most of this synthetic output just… evaporates.

It’s forgetful. And maybe more importantly: we are forgetful of it.

Why?

I think it’s because, as humans, we still instinctively value effort.
We’re drawn to the things that cost something to make.

We admire what requires commitment.
Running a four-minute mile. Building a dry-stone wall. Painting a ceiling by hand.
Even in the digital world, there’s sense when something’s been made with care. With frustration. With late nights and doubts and do-overs. We might not always know how hard something was to make, but we can feel it. There’s a kind of human residue on it.

AI imagery, for all its technical brilliance, often lacks that residue. It gives us form without friction. Beauty without burden. And our brains don’t quite know what to do with that. So we move on.

We’re not wired to value what’s frictionless. We’re wired to value what’s earned.

There’s a reason the Mona Lisa is behind bulletproof glass and not just another JPEG on your feed. It’s not just about aesthetics, it’s about the story of human effort wrapped inside the image. The hand. The eye. The years. The risk of failure. The physicality. The patience.

AI skips the blood, sweat, and tears. And while that’s the point, that’s also the problem.

This doesn’t mean AI imagery has no place. It’s a tool, and it’s here to stay.
But if we want our work, or any image to matter, to move people, to stick in their minds...
maybe we need to reintroduce effort. Not because it’s trendy, but because meaning has always come with cost.

And maybe that’s the paradox we’re heading into:
AI can make anything.
But only humans can make something matter.