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On October 20, 2026, in arguments related to his new book *The Creativity Hoax*, Thomas Frank raised the point that the danger of AI lies in its replication of orthodox ideas. He traces the ideologization of the concepts of "innovation" and "creativity" beginning in the 1950s, with its origin in BBDO advertising man Alex Osborn's popularization of the term "brainstorm." He argues that this narrative first labeled blue-collar workers as "uncreative," and that today AI is bringing the same shock to the white-collar creative class. Frank also criticizes large language models for tending to restate authoritative answers and reinforce orthodox ideas, citing as an example a model that once misattributed a song lyric to *The Great Gatsby*. This view is currently reported by Fortune Tech, and there are no subsequent developments of fact.
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Thomas Frank's New Book "The Creativity Hoax": How Innovation Became America's Biggest BusinessDevelopments
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Oct 20
Fortune Tech
Thomas Frank's New Book "The Creativity Hoax": How Innovation Became America's Biggest Business
In his new book "The Creativity Hoax," Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?," traces the ideologicalization of the concepts of "innovation" and "creativity" since the 1950s, originating with BBDO advertising man Alex Osborn's promotion of the term "brainstorm." He argues that this narrative first labeled blue-collar workers as "uncreative," and now AI is bringing the same shock to the white-collar creative class. Frank also criticizes LLMs for tending to repeat authoritative answers and reinforce orthodox views, citing an example in which a model misattributed a song lyric to "The Great Gatsby."