I was chatting to a lovely friend and fellow wordsmith yesterday about generative AI and how it’s affecting our work… and then I popped over to LinkedIn and saw a post suggesting that using ChatGPT for qualitative research is progress, just like calculators and spellchecks. And underneath this was a post lamenting the end of the em dash. And then another with tips for spotting AI copy. And then another one about how to ‘pivot’ if you’re a copywriter.
I want to throw things. But instead I’ve taken this as an opportunity to jot down my thoughts… I have a few.
Generative AI isn’t stealing my job – it’s stealing my words. It’s stealing from writers, poets, copywriters, academics, researchers, scientists, architects, artists, photographers, designers, illustrators, craftspeople, and on and on. There’s no escaping that at its core, generative AI is theft. That’s the entire premise.
What AI can’t steal or replicate is the joy every human gets from the process of creating. And all the big feelings we feel reading or seeing or experiencing another human’s imagination. It can’t replicate those thought-provoking conversations and human connections. AI doesn’t have empathy or compassion. It can’t belly laugh or cry or shake its fist at the sky. It can't think critically. It can’t think. Generative AI tools don't have media literacy built in – they repeat and perpetuate harmful stereotypes, propaganda, unconscious biases.
Which leads me to the top of my list: We all see the daily commentary in our media dehumanising and scapegoating trans people, Palestinians, refugees, people of colour, women, Muslims. We all know words and language matter – they can incite violence and cause real life harm. 👏AI doesn’t know that.👏
So no – for all these reasons – it can’t do your research for you (FFS) and yes it is terrible for the environment.
My work has slowed down lately and I’m positive I’m losing opportunities to ChatGPT etc, but the people who choose generative AI over human imagination aren’t my kind of people. That may sound flippant or dismissive or naive – but I’ve always been firm in working with people who care, who do the right thing. One day soon I may have to pivot, but for now I shall persevere writing human words for human readers.
And to caption this pic - I’m sitting in my garden reading the WONDERFUL Ursula K. Le Guin, Words Are My Matter:
“The imagination is an essential tool of the mind, a fundamental way of thinking, an indispensable means of becoming and remaining human.”
Be more Ursula.