When AI Meets the Garage Inventor: A Conversation on Creativity and AI

Human Creativity Has Not Been Displaced

Yesterday, I had a fascinating conversation with an inventor who is building something new—an AI invention with help from AI. He’s not part of a giant research lab or tech giant. He’s a garage inventor, the kind of independent innovator I’ve dedicated my career to. What made this conversation different is that his invention was shaped by AI—not just used in its output, but integrated into the early stages of ideation and development. That intersection—between human creativity and machine capability—revealed a lot about where we are in this moment of AI history.

AI is Still in Its “Early Internet” Phase for Indie Creators

Right now, it’s still not obvious how a solo inventor, working outside of major tech ecosystems, could build a truly AI-native product. The tools are coming fast, but today, creating an AI product from scratch still requires serious engineering talent, deep technical knowledge, and a lot of money. It reminds me of the early days of the Internet, where building a website or streaming audio required real coding chops and custom infrastructure.

But change is coming quickly. Just as the early Internet was followed by WordPress, Shopify, and no-code tools, I expect we’ll see an explosion of “build-your-own-AI” platforms in the next year. The moment where a solo inventor can develop, iterate, and launch AI tools as easily as they once built websites is coming. And when it does, the creativity floodgates will open.

Human Knowledge + AI = Better Questions, Better Results

A key insight from our discussion was this: AI is only as useful as the questions you ask it.

Asking the right questions isn’t just a matter of curiosity—it requires knowledge. You need to understand the terrain you’re exploring in order to guide the AI toward meaningful possibilities. AI can sift through massive amounts of data and generate endless permutations, but without direction, it meanders. It doesn’t know what matters. That’s where humans come in.

Creativity Still Belongs to Humans

What really struck me during our talk was how our conversation evolved. The inventor originally focused on how law firms and medical professionals might use his invention. The problem? Those markets are difficult to monetize for new products, especially when it comes to integrating something as novel as AI.

But then something clicked. Drawing on an experience I had 25 years ago working on an Internet radio venture, I saw a path that could take his invention in a completely different direction—into the publishing industry. Not just as a viable use case, but as a potentially transformative and highly profitable application.

That leap—the creative connection between seemingly unrelated experiences and domains—is something AI doesn’t do well. It can remix and generate ideas that seem creative, but it doesn’t make the intuitive jumps that human minds can. Those moments of “Aha!” still belong to us.

The Future is Collaborative

What I took away from this conversation is that the future of invention isn’t AI versus humans. It’s AI with humans—especially humans who have lived, learned, experimented, and failed in all kinds of fields.

If you’ve spent time deep in an industry, built something from scratch, or explored a niche others overlook—you’re bringing something to the table that AI can’t replicate. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

And that’s exactly why this moment is so exciting. We’re entering an era where the garage inventor gets a new set of tools. Tools that won’t replace human ingenuity—but will amplify it.

Invention City has deep experience in developing and commercializing new ideas. Learn more about us here.

Mike Marks