Lately, it seems like everywhere I turn, I have something about AI in my face. AI will soon be running everything! Get on board before the world passes you by! You won’t be able to run a business without AI! Books will be replaced by AI drivel!
And so it goes…
I have done a lot of thinking about this. I am currently reading the book, More Than Words, which discusses writing and AI. Basically, the author’s argument is that writing is an expression of a unique intelligence. That it is more than words, it is part of our humanness in that it is our reflection on what we have experienced and our own creation. AI is not human and cannot create. Despite breathless hype to the contrary, it is a prediction machine. It has a record of billions of texts and uses them to predict what comes next. It does not know or understand truth.
I have recently started a job teaching English Language Arts in a public school. I have been encouraged, without training, to use AI to help me do my job. I would be less skeptical about this if AI were actually going to make my job easier, by collating student information into a readable report by class period, for instance. I am discouraged, because it is being touted as another tool to use without appropriate thought or planning. Without real consideration of when it is appropriate and useful and when it is not. Anecdotally, another teacher told me that in a graduate course she is taking, the professor admitted that she is using AI to “grade” assignments. My response was, if AI is teaching this class, why do you need a professor? If we let AI do things that humans should be doing, like giving thoughtful feedback on assignments, then we deserve to lose our jobs.
People are not cogs. They are not interchangeable parts. They are not expendable. People are human beings who should be treated with dignity and respect; valued for their unique intelligence and the ability to reflect—something a machine does not have.
I will not use AI in my editing process, in my feedback process, or in any other way that impacts my interaction with human beings. It will not write my emails, my blog posts, or my website or sales copy. I value my voice and the voices of those I work with too much to farm it out to a machine and become another generic voice in the cacophony of the online world. AI is blindingly fast, but speed is not the measure of quality. Prediction is not thinking. Text production alone is not art.
Some of you may have different views, as is your right. I respect them, but I will not adopt them. I refuse to surrender my unique intelligence to group think. In the words of the seventies, I will forever be trying to “Stick it to the Man.” In our times, “the man” is AI. I hope you will join me.
Start with an authentically human review of your own unique work: