For millennia, humans have balked at the introduction of new technologies – and new ideas – in all spaces. There was an uproar about the first cars, the radio, any new music, the internet, women running marathons, and all kinds of other things for as long as we’ve been recording any of it.
The newest addition to the list of “things to fear?” Artificial intelligence.
Yes, like social media and the internet and cars, there are a lot of ways AI could go wrong. Like anything – knowledge, power, or technology – in the hands of a less than morally steadfast person, artificial intelligence can be used against the common good. But who decides that? Like most things, AI can be used as a weapon – or as a force for good.
Creation is endemic to human existence. The earliest and most functional of tools, cooking vessels, were still created with artistic expression. Critical to the expression of human creativity is the individualistic experience and perception of each person walking this planet. No two people are the same, in their DNA, their experience, their skill, or their expression. And that’s what artificial intelligence does not have – individuality.
Artificial intelligence has the sum, the collective, the average, the aggregate. It farms for rules and best practices. It exists in algorithms. It is the overview, the lowest common denominator. What terrifies people about artificial intelligence, is the notion that our capacity for creating could be superseded by the most basic and common iteration of information.
In other words, AI will make us lazy.
As a writer and editor – as a creative – I admit, this scares me. More and more I am recognizing what I call “AI speak” in the rough drafts my clients send me. “AI speak” surfaces in big, empty corporate words like “leverage” and “performance,” in cliches like “reach your fullest potential” (gag!) and in sentences that sound the same, line after line. When AI spits out the copy for us, we risk ceasing to be creative thinkers. We risk missing out on the rewards of diving deep, of thinking critically, of clearly communicating from a place of authenticity.
I am not one of those writers to hates AI unequivocally, who feels threatened by it or wants to put my head in the sand and pretend it’s not here. Despite the incredible risks of plagiarism and cheating (I do not envy teachers), I believe AI can be a force for good.
We just have to learn how to use it responsibly, and as a starting point for our unique creative expressions.
You know what AI is really good at? Following rules, taking directions.
You know what humans are really good at? Breaking rules. Being original. Creating new ideas.
Our fear that a piece of writing entirely composed by AI can outpace or outshine a piece of work composed by a real human being is understandable. Fairness, due credit and intellectual copyright protection are integral to our creative work. But it doesn’t take long to look at a piece of writing entirely composed by artificial intelligence and realize that it lacks personality. AI lacks that special something that each individual creator has: perspective.
The complicated relationship between humans and technology isn’t going away; it’s only getting more complicated. With our rapidly changing online world, it’s no wonder the average person might be feeling a little lost and uncertain about their place in a world with AI – or AI’s place in their world. In a recent survey a colleague and I did about AI, we learned that more than half of the respondents were a) fearful of AI and b) had never used it. Everyone who took the survey was curious about AI. What is this thing, this force, that is showing up so suddenly everywhere and threatening to rock our whole world?
Don’t be afraid to be curious. Don’t be afraid to experiment with AI. But don’t stop there. Don’t let AI think unequivocally for you. Let it be a foundation – for brainstorming, for helping you think outside your own little box. But then, use the material that AI suggests for you and mold it into your own – your own poem, your own memories, your own story.
Be authentically you on the page. That’s something AI cannot do. And right now, the world needs more genuinely interested, deep-thinking creative people to inspire, educate and hold others accountable.
*Do you use AI in your creative work? If so, how?
