Are We Still Talking About This?
I’m back! Again. Look, I never claimed I was consistent. If you assumed that I was because I have a blog, and a website, and social media accounts, then that’s on you. I refuse to be blamed for this grotesque misalliance (of trust). You really should know better by now*
*Read as: I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been busy T.T
So, while I’ve been on a temporary blog hiatus, I see that the AI conversation hasn’t gotten any better. The fear-mongering is so real in creative circles, government, etc. Y’all are fully onboard with this “down with the machines” mentality. In other words, none of you read my last post on this topic (which you can still do, by the way. Just saying.)
Since the progress-panic is lingering, to put it mildly, why don’t we try a different approach? Instead of assuring you all that AI can and will never fully replace human interaction, let’s focus on how we can use AI to enrich our medium.
Having done so myself just this morning, I think I’m in a good position to talk about it.
As a self-published author, I do a lot of work. I mean A LOT of work. I’m not complaining, seeing as I chose to do this to myself (for some reason I still can’t quite fathom), but it can get overwhelming. If you’re serious about publishing, then it takes quite a bit of time and brain power to refine your skills. You have to learn at least a little about every single step of the process, including writing, editing, graphic design, printing, pricing, marketing, etc. It’s a huge commitment, and it’s hard to do well by yourself.
But you know what can help you, right? You see where this is going?
AI is a tool. We need to stop thinking about it and talking about it like it’s an entity in and of itself. It’s a tool. A very, very useful one.
I’ve done a lot of research on every aspect of publishing and promoting in my genre of choice. I’ve done courses and read books and thrown myself into a trial by fire. I still don’t know a fraction of the information I need to maintain a successful presence on social media and encourage traffic to my website, my books, whatever. I was drafting an instagram post recently, and I found myself wondering which hashtags I should add to gain the most traction. I didn’t know, and I didn’t know where to look to find that information. You know what I did have? A login for OpenAI.
I asked. I got an answer. I saw results.
For all the fear generated around AI and the potential for it to takeover human interaction entirely, very little is said about the many ways we can and do incorporate AI into our daily lives. I have a bit of a unique perspective on this because my day job involves collaborating with AI specialists quite often, so maybe I’m biased toward all the good that AI can do (think: personal care robots and automated administration and monitoring of medications). Still, I’m actually pretty excited to see where AI will go in the future.
I guess all I’m trying to say is that we need to take a collective breath and try to reframe our thinking. AI is not the enemy, and treating it like it is will only lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy a la I, Robot and, let’s face it, we can’t all be Will Smith (Nor do we want to right now? That slap was wild).
