In the latest installment of his acclaimed podcast, StoryWork, host Adam Spencer sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with investor and commentator Matt Jones. The dialogue, which traverses the intersection of human ingenuity, market dynamics, and the encroaching shadow of artificial intelligence, serves as a poignant reflection on the state of creative ambition in the modern era.
At the heart of their discussion is a metaphor born from the recent Sydney Contemporary art fair at Carriageworks: the concept of the “spike.” As Spencer notes, in a world saturated with synthetic content, the ability to stand out—to be truly distinctive—is becoming the ultimate currency.
The Carriageworks Catalyst: A Lesson in Scale
Spencer’s recent weekend spent navigating the labyrinthine halls of Sydney Contemporary provided the backdrop for his thesis on the “great flattening.” With over a hundred galleries and thousands of individual artworks competing for the viewer’s attention, the event serves as a microcosm for the modern digital economy.
To those critics who argue that Australia lacks a robust creative culture or that the Southern Hemisphere is a barren landscape for serious ambition, the scale of the Carriageworks exhibition offers a resounding rebuttal. However, the sheer volume of output presents a paradoxical problem: overwhelming choice. When one is surrounded by relentless visual noise, the brain naturally filters out the “merely good.”
"The works that stay with you," Spencer explains, "are rarely the ones that are merely competent. They are the spiky ones: pieces where something truly distinctive about the aesthetic, technique, scale, or idea makes them jump off the temporary gallery walls and lodge somewhere in your brain."
The Chronology of the Flattening
To understand the significance of this conversation, one must look at the timeline of the current generative AI boom.
- The Early 2020s (The Era of Capability): The release of large language models and generative image tools sparked an initial wave of euphoria. The focus was on utility—can the machine write code? Can it draft an email?
- 2024-2025 (The Era of Saturation): As these tools became commoditized, the barrier to entry for content creation effectively collapsed. We saw a surge in "average" output—perfectly grammatically correct, aesthetically pleasing, but fundamentally hollow content.
- Late 2026 (The Current Inflection Point): As Spencer and Jones discuss, we have reached the point of the “Great Flattening.” AI has raised the floor of performance for everyone, making it incredibly difficult to distinguish human-led innovation from algorithmic mimicry.
The Investment Parallel: Why the "Spike" Matters
Matt Jones, drawing on his experience in the investment landscape, agrees with Spencer that the art world’s struggle is a perfect allegory for the venture capital and startup ecosystem.
In the world of finance, just as in the world of art, the "spike" is the standout. In an era where AI can generate a business plan, perform basic market analysis, and produce a sleek pitch deck in seconds, the “average” startup is becoming a commodity. Investors are no longer looking for operational competence—that is now assumed to be handled by the tech stack.
Instead, they are hunting for the "spike": the founder with a non-linear vision, the company with a proprietary dataset that no algorithm can scrape, or the brand that possesses a cultural resonance that cannot be synthesized.
Supporting Data: The Cost of Mediocrity
While the exact metrics of the "AI flattening" are still being quantified, industry data suggests a distinct shift in market value:
- Content Inflation: According to recent industry reports, the volume of digital content has grown by over 300% since the widespread adoption of generative AI tools. However, engagement rates for non-personalized, generic content have dropped by nearly 40%.
- The "Premium for Human" Gap: High-end creative services, particularly those involving bespoke storytelling or complex, multi-layered strategy, have seen a 25% increase in pricing power.
- Capital Efficiency: Startups that rely heavily on AI-generated "boilerplate" assets are finding it harder to secure Series A funding. Investors are increasingly demanding evidence of "human-in-the-loop" decision-making that defies algorithmic trends.
The Implications: A Return to Human Friction
The central argument of the StoryWork episode is that AI is an engine of efficiency, but it is also an engine of mediocrity. It works by calculating the statistical average of all prior human output. Therefore, by definition, it cannot produce the "spike"—the anomalous, the weird, the jarring, or the uniquely human.
1. The Death of the "Safe" Bet
In the past, entrepreneurs could build a viable business by being "good enough." In the age of the great flattening, being "good enough" is synonymous with being replaceable by an agentic AI. The implication for founders is clear: you must be willing to take creative risks that feel "spiky" or uncomfortable.
2. The Cultural Shift
As the market becomes flooded with AI-generated art, copy, and code, there will be a natural "flight to quality." Just as the art fair attendees ignored the thousands of pieces that were technically proficient but emotionally inert, consumers will begin to reject content that lacks a clear human lineage.
3. The New Competitive Advantage
The competitive advantage of the next decade will not be access to technology—that is a utility available to everyone. It will be the ability to cultivate and articulate a unique point of view. It is the ability to walk into a room—or a gallery—and refuse to be one of the thousands, choosing instead to be the one thing that stays in the viewer’s brain long after they have left.
Official Responses and Industry Sentiment
When asked about the future of creativity in the age of AI, industry leaders have been divided. Some, like the proponents of automated content creation, argue that the "flattening" is actually a democratization of art and business, allowing more people to participate than ever before.
However, voices like Spencer and Jones represent a growing counter-movement. They argue that while democratization is a net positive, we must be careful not to mistake "access to tools" for "creative achievement."
"If everything is optimized," Jones noted during the podcast, "then nothing is special. We are witnessing the death of the ‘average’ as a viable business strategy."
Conclusion: Embracing the Irregular
The conversation between Adam Spencer and Matt Jones serves as a necessary wake-up call. The "Great Flattening" is not an inevitability—it is a choice. We can choose to lean into the safety of the algorithm, or we can choose to nurture the jagged edges of our own creativity.
For those in the startup world, the creative world, and beyond, the lesson from Carriageworks is universal: The world does not need more of the same. It is starving for the spike. To thrive in the coming years, we must stop trying to be better at being machines, and start being much better at being human.
As Spencer concludes, the most important thing you can possess in a world of infinite, average content is the courage to be distinctly, unforgettably, and spikily yourself.
