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Hey Reader,

Using AI to write for us is the stupidest way to use it.

We have this tool at our disposal that can, on a global scale, help fight climate change, revolutionise medicine, surgery, and diagnostics, leaving doctors free to improve patient care, eliminate poverty.

On a more individual level, it can automate boring, time-consuming tasks, reduce admin, transcribe and edit meetings and calls so they make sense…

And we’re out here using it to do ART?

This has got to be the greatest trick the tech bros and billionaires ever played on us.

When I were a lass, computers were clunky things and you’d wait 40 minutes for your game to load only for it to crash at the last second, and that is where a lot of millennial and Gen-X anger issues came from now I think about it.

Now, we can do things instantly.

The big promise from tech was: better computers will make our lives easier and free up our time.

hahahhahahahahhahaha

Excuse me.

Ahem.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHA.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the exact opposite has happened. Most of us are now beholden to a tiny plastic rectangle that makes us miserable in new and exciting ways every single day.

It’s created more work and stress than I can even articulate.

It’s given the worst people in the world a direct line to our brains and central nervous systems. (Also the best people, but the worst ones are louder, so.)

And it’s enabled people we don’t want to hear from to contact us at any hour of the day or night to vomit whatever brainfart they’ve just had into our ears or pocketses and make it our problem.

Then, to add insult to ACTUAL injury in many cases, the billionaire tech industry has patted us on the heads and said awwwww nobody has time to create art anymore so here’s an AI to do it badly for you.

Thus entirely missing the point of being a human. And removing the creation of wealth from artists and putting more wealth in the hands of — you’ve guessed it — themselves.

In the rush to create ever more content, because we’ve all misunderstood the point of creating content, we’ve glommed onto whatever shiny button we can press to make it happen for us faster, easier, less stressfully.

But more content isn’t the point.

The point is the thinking. The ideas. The messages that can only come from YOU.

When we get AI to do our writing for us, we’re getting it to THINK for us.

And the thoughts its thinking are — at best — a beige amalgamation of the most mediocre the internet has to offer, because by its very nature an LLM gathers and averages. And at worst, they’re the thoughts thunk by people who very much do NOT have our best interests at heart.

I’m not saying AI is 100% evil and should be avoided at all costs. It’s a tool. It’s going to be incredible for some areas.

I’m saying, do not outsource your thinking to it.

Do not let it literally atrophy your brain (because it will).

Use it to save yourself time, so you can create space for joyful writing and creativity.

Then tell your stories and make real, human connections.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

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