The One About AI

I won’t be using generative AI on this website. I won’t be using generative AI on my phone. I won’t be using generative AI on my personal computer.

I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts on generative AI for months. I can’t seem to write something that I’m completely happy with. So I’m going to post this as-is. All opinions are a work in progress. For the rest of this article assume AI means generative AI.

A short while ago Jay Springett laid out a compelling AI workflow for his creative process. It was the first, and so far only, practical application of AI that I’ve seen which actually appealed to me in any way. A way of doing something Jay was already doing, but better. With the human element still at the forefront of the creative process.

Jay is essentially using AI to support a dictation approach to writing. Many of my objections to this type of application are purely personal. I spent my entire education embedded in the liberal arts - I was taught to think through writing, mostly hand writing and then later typing. I don’t like converting my speech to text. If I have to speak at all, I prefer to read from a text instead.

So much of my thought process relies on the manipulation of text, not just during the initial draft phase but also when iterating through the editing phases. Many of the steps that AI can help with the most are the steps that I get the most benefit out of doing myself.

In addition, I have gone to significant lengths in the past few years to disconnect myself from services which I don’t own and control. If I come to rely on some software as a service AI for part of my workflow then I expose myself to a lot of risk. Most of these companies are operating at a loss to build their businesses. What happens when they start to turn the thumbscrews for revenue? How much will I have to spend to keep using it? What if the company fails completely?

I’m concerned about the environmental impact. The pollution generated to run these models - hardware upgrades, electricity generation.

Most of all I think the negative societal and economic impacts of AI far outweigh the positive ones. I don’t want to implicitly support that through use. The information pollution on the internet - slop websites purely generated by AI for clicks. The elimination of whole job categories. The devaluing of artistic works. The fake accounts manipulating public opinion. The lonely people burning money to talk to their AI friend.

So there won’t be any AI generated content on this website.

But despite all of that, AI is increasingly becoming part of my job. So I am learning how to use it. Specifically I have access to ChatGPT and Copilot on my work computer. So far I have not been very impressed. For all the reasons above, but also because of the nature of my work.

The vast majority of my workload is spent dealing with problems created by other teams - the custom interfaces they create, convincing them to fix defects they introduce, implementing last minute changes they require. AI doesn’t add much here. Even in writing emails for these things, adding AI has felt like more of a distraction than anything else.

I have lost more time to listening to company leadership talk about AI than I have gained by using it. It seems like every big meeting has an AI adoption segment now. All of them are saying the same thing. And I know it will end up being another way for management to eliminate roles while pushing the remaining employees ever closer to burnout.

If I can’t avoid AI at work, I want to do my best to avoid it in my personal life. But I can’t. I can choose not to use it directly, but its output will still show up in my search results, tv shows, advertisements, and practically every other aspect of life.

My initial reaction has been to pull back significantly. I’m mostly watching old shows on DVD and VHS now. I’m thinking about switching to a dumb phone. I’ve been shifting over to the indie web. I search Wikipedia before Google more now.

At this time I’m not going to completely cut myself off from people that use AI. I considered it. But I am a technologist. I know that the best way to understand and compensate for the changes coming is to gain a deep understanding of the systems involved. Plus I really like Jay’s writing and he has shown me that there can be good ways to use this tech.