I am one of those people who doesn't use generative ai in my person life because I am pretty much 100% against it, I find it to be deeply unethical for plagiarism and environmental reasons and so far do not feel like I am missing out on some amazing new tool. I just generally do not feel like it will make any part of my life easier that I want made easier. I am so tired of optimization and convenience being sold as the solution and feel like generative ai fits into that talking point.
At work I use an AI voiceover creation program and I feel icky about using it but I don't have an alternative solution and it's approved all the way to the top of the organization so I don't feel like I have any ability to sway that decision.
I definitely had to check my immediate outrage when I started reading this, and always appreciate your thoughtfulness and willingness to think out loud!
I like what you said about optimization and convenience being sold as a solution too often. That’s so true how frustrating that is, we have to ask if saving time is even a good thing sometimes??? Like “this will make you more efficient!” Or “this will save you so much time” but save time for what exactly
I used to be pretty apathetic toward AI until this month where I started using it for my job search, mostly because I hate the job search process so so much that when I realized I could use AI for my resume, LinkedIn, finding jobs, I was hooked. BUT (and this is a big but) this is formed from my feelings of how the job search is so inauthentic and curated anyway. “Sell yourself, format your resume with random metric to get through the ATS, make your LinkedIn reach higher” that I was just like okay AI do what you can for me, because being this curated is so incredibly exhausting just to get a recruiter to see me.
BUT in areas where it is more downhill flow for me to be myself, in my writing, in interviews themselves, I wouldn’t really use AI and I’m fairly apathetic towards how it could help me there. That’s partly may be why you’re apathetic towards AI, is because you have put yourself in a space to be yourself / work that doesn’t require you to be a specific character. Hmm maybe that’s what it is? It’s that there may be more & more spaces that ask for us to act in certain ways (Instagram, LinkedIn, etc) and then it’s coupled with AI that easily gets you there. Not sure but that’s interesting,
But honestly our own thinking and putting ourselves in places that stretch us is going to be so important, and your affinity to that is a gift for sure!
This article is so interesting, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. I find it refreshing to read something that is not totally against AI, and which also give space for reflections on the matter. I personally use AI at work to summarize some texts or to give them structure. I found it quite interesting and challenging, which I think is good as it makes me *think*. I very much like the conclusion: "The technology will still be there when and if you decide you need it." I found it kind of reassuring. :)
I use AI at work for coding in Python, Visual Basic and SQL as I just cannot recall the language intricacies since I don’t use them everyday. Therefore, it helps me do my job faster, learn a bit of the lexicon and edit it to fit my needs. I don’t waste time trying to find the solution to my exact problem or have to use something that did not match but not realized I used it wrong etc. So it made me, an RF engineer into more of a software developer.
Also, when I am in meetings and I do not understand everything people say the first time, sometimes the summary feature brings out stuff I may have missed, so I don’t have to listen the entire call again.
Otherwise, many coworkers use it for typing emails, but I do like writing myself. I don’t have time to explain what I want it to say, and further edit it, I can just write what I want. I think sometimes I could consider using it for writing our guidelines documentation. But I have not done so yet.
Bonnie uses AI more often and asks options etc. I think her relationship to AI is different than mine.
I am one of those people who doesn't use generative ai in my person life because I am pretty much 100% against it, I find it to be deeply unethical for plagiarism and environmental reasons and so far do not feel like I am missing out on some amazing new tool. I just generally do not feel like it will make any part of my life easier that I want made easier. I am so tired of optimization and convenience being sold as the solution and feel like generative ai fits into that talking point.
At work I use an AI voiceover creation program and I feel icky about using it but I don't have an alternative solution and it's approved all the way to the top of the organization so I don't feel like I have any ability to sway that decision.
I definitely had to check my immediate outrage when I started reading this, and always appreciate your thoughtfulness and willingness to think out loud!
I like what you said about optimization and convenience being sold as a solution too often. That’s so true how frustrating that is, we have to ask if saving time is even a good thing sometimes??? Like “this will make you more efficient!” Or “this will save you so much time” but save time for what exactly
I used to be pretty apathetic toward AI until this month where I started using it for my job search, mostly because I hate the job search process so so much that when I realized I could use AI for my resume, LinkedIn, finding jobs, I was hooked. BUT (and this is a big but) this is formed from my feelings of how the job search is so inauthentic and curated anyway. “Sell yourself, format your resume with random metric to get through the ATS, make your LinkedIn reach higher” that I was just like okay AI do what you can for me, because being this curated is so incredibly exhausting just to get a recruiter to see me.
BUT in areas where it is more downhill flow for me to be myself, in my writing, in interviews themselves, I wouldn’t really use AI and I’m fairly apathetic towards how it could help me there. That’s partly may be why you’re apathetic towards AI, is because you have put yourself in a space to be yourself / work that doesn’t require you to be a specific character. Hmm maybe that’s what it is? It’s that there may be more & more spaces that ask for us to act in certain ways (Instagram, LinkedIn, etc) and then it’s coupled with AI that easily gets you there. Not sure but that’s interesting,
But honestly our own thinking and putting ourselves in places that stretch us is going to be so important, and your affinity to that is a gift for sure!
Also Prof Ethan Mollick was just on “On Point”, looks like he looked into the “brain rot”:
https://open.substack.com/pub/oneusefulthing/p/against-brain-damage?r=10corp&utm_medium=ios
This article is so interesting, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. I find it refreshing to read something that is not totally against AI, and which also give space for reflections on the matter. I personally use AI at work to summarize some texts or to give them structure. I found it quite interesting and challenging, which I think is good as it makes me *think*. I very much like the conclusion: "The technology will still be there when and if you decide you need it." I found it kind of reassuring. :)
It’s helped me bring language to a lot of experiences I went through. It’s phenomenal for creative brainstorming too.
I use AI at work for coding in Python, Visual Basic and SQL as I just cannot recall the language intricacies since I don’t use them everyday. Therefore, it helps me do my job faster, learn a bit of the lexicon and edit it to fit my needs. I don’t waste time trying to find the solution to my exact problem or have to use something that did not match but not realized I used it wrong etc. So it made me, an RF engineer into more of a software developer.
Also, when I am in meetings and I do not understand everything people say the first time, sometimes the summary feature brings out stuff I may have missed, so I don’t have to listen the entire call again.
Otherwise, many coworkers use it for typing emails, but I do like writing myself. I don’t have time to explain what I want it to say, and further edit it, I can just write what I want. I think sometimes I could consider using it for writing our guidelines documentation. But I have not done so yet.
Bonnie uses AI more often and asks options etc. I think her relationship to AI is different than mine.