#WinterABC24: Who Is At That Heart of My Content Creation? AI or I?

The million dollar question: Is AI here to serve us or have us for dinner?

For a creative who loves living under her rock and enjoys creating things from scratch I had to to lift my head from the sand and keep up with changing times. Nothing can kill creativity like obsolete systems and a closed mind. But with changing times comes fear: the fear of the unknown and that  actual fear of being made redundant by a machine that seems way intelligent than I. Fuel added to injury, other’s carelessly thrown remarks on how AI has a killer appetite ready to devour all didn’t help.

“Artificial intelligence is not a substitute for human intelligence; it is a tool to amplify human creativity and ingenuity. “

Fei-Fei Li

I avoided all matter AI. I ran away when it came knocking lest as others said, knock me down. Knock me down not knock me up 🤣But once I killed that fear after using it just a bit here and there out of sheer curiosity I saw how it can enhance my creative process and help me streamline my thoughts and feelings that most times I try to line in cohesive stanzas of poetry. Then it did knock me up, with the idea of endless possibilities. Using AI in tandem with your original body of work has its benefits. Now I have a whole other view even respect for this tool. With knowledge comes negation of fear.   

That’s what it is a tool and I it’s end user.

I try not to forget my power to create and give it all the power though. I don’t want my vast mind to become obsolete. That would be a vast waste of resources.

I don’t believe that AI will ever have the full capacity to replace humans as most most fear. There is some wonder and magic about the humans essence that none can replicate. We have power that try as we (scientists) might can never infuse in AI. They might work faster, build better codes, draw better than my amateur sketches and even write a glorious poem but never will they be able to infuse emotions that a human-made content can. We put pieces of our souls in what we create. What would AI add ? More of its ones and zeros? We have a beating heat and a vast, glorious, magnificent mind creating things out of naught? Can AI match this?

“AI is a mirror, reflecting not only our intellect, but our values and fears.”

Ravi Narayanan

Lets not be enamored by the pros that we forget there are cons. 

The deeper question is will AI and it’s use bred a sterility in a generation that want things instantly and kill our capacity to create original content? Or that question that it might take away your jobs. Or even the world like it did in Persons of Interest. Am I going too far with my wild thoughts riding on fear? But how safe are we with AI infiltrating our systems, learning how we think, how to map our ideas and execute? What of deep fakes? Am I digressing? The focus was to be on content creation but…

AI generated image from my curated words swimming in my mind. 😁It nailed what I was trying to depict, AI working hand in hand (no pun intended) with its creator. Nice dimples too 🤣How did it know I dig dimples eh?

Should you use AI? Why not? Though you want to do major of the legwork so that it does not dilute the humanity in your content. But it feels like cheating you say. No, it’s not cheating. Well it depends on how you look at it. Can I consider myself a creative if some of my work were aided along by AI? Yes, you’re still a creative even if you choose to use AI in tandem with your creative process.

What would AI be without a human guide? Think! So… I am  still the heart if not soul of what I create with or without AI.

My take home for you is not to let it override your creative system and cripple it into nonexistent. Don’t give it that power. Or become it’s junkie. It’s a tool, you wield it’s power while you sharpen/tune fine your skills and grow your content into quality masterpieces.