Using artificial intelligence for writing is something I do not believe I will ever do. Here is why:
I like my own expression, or “voice”! I have worked hard to know myself and to express my best thoughts, insights, feelings. Why would I want any other entity to interfere with that?
There is another more important reason I will not use artificial intelligence for writing: it contributes to dehumanizing the world, with serious consequences.
TAKING ACTION
Even for doing research, I have shut off all the artificial intelligence in my phone and computers, and as always a standard Google search does a very good job. I have read that Google has made even the standard searching more intelligent, but it is certainly not using the latest software for its “intelligence.”
I am not talking about the use of advanced computer capacities for organizing charts and data. That I can appreciate as helpful for saving time. The ability to organize information in flexible ways has existed for decades, so I do not even consider it as artificial intelligence.
That said, I will not use a computer that alters my way of expressing, even a tiny bit.
The number of posts I read which sound as if a template was filled in, has grown rather quickly on media such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Of course, that is due to adoption of artificial intelligence to structure authors’ thinking and expression. Something important gets lost in the process.
I feel an illness prodding into my awareness when I read yet another post that has good ideas but which has the marks of being the high-quality output of artificial intelligence, granted with some prompting and source text (hopefully) by the author who offers the post or article.
Does reading such things, repeatedly, bother you too?
Conversely, I love reading original, thoughtful posts and articles on topics of interest to me or to everyone.
This morning I read a beautiful post, fairly short yet very clearly making a useful point. The post was by a mother who helped her child and the child’s friends learn many things in the process of setting up and operating a lemonade stand. The voice of the post was warm and genuine, and the thoughts expressed about providing the right amount of presence to help children learn from their experiences, while not dictating what that learning should be, was excellent and clear. I felt enriched after reading it.
FACING THE LACK OF AUTHENTICITY IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Incessant advertising, social media algorithms, the mechanical (artificial intelligence) contamination of much social media content, and the un-human automation of business activity (think, Amazon), these all combine to put dehumanizing pressure on societies.
Facebook, for example, used to be a place that was dominated by seeing posts shared by real friends and acquaintances, in their own words and images.
Then it became more and more of an advertising platform to optimize profits. The law requires public corporations to maximize shareholder value or else risk lawsuits, but the cumulative negative effect on the human mind is still there, whatever the cause is for that trend.
Much has been written and said about AI slop and about the damage of algorithms, so I will not go further into specific details about those topics.
WHY I CARE
What matters most to me is the added disconnection that mechanization, including artificial intelligence, is bringing into society and to the many individuals who are directly involved or who are indirectly affected by this direction.
Yes, I will use a spell checker and grammar checker, because making those kinds of corrections helps to avoid distracting the reader; those corrections are not interfering in the actual content of a person’s writing.
The 20th-century psychoanalyst Erich Fromm wrote his iconic book Escape From Freedom, published in 1941, looking at the reasons individuals and societies are willing to give up freedom and choose authoritarianism instead.
A core reason that he pointed to for running towards authoritarianism was the loss of the sense of self, also felt as isolation. He expressed in the book the many causes this happened in the mid-twentieth century. It led to a number of dictatorships including in his country of origin, Germany. We know how badly that turned out for Germany and much of the world.
Just to clarify, “sense of self” refers here not to a rigid concept of self, but rather refers to comfort internally, and to trust in one’s abilities to face the challenges and opportunities of life. A strong sense of self allows for greater altruism and connection with others. An authentic sense of self can be considered the basis of the best in human nature and human action.
SUMMARY
If someday a computer is a “better” writer than me—and I question the concept of being better since it is authenticity that matters—that computer’s output would still not be me speaking, it would at least in part be another entity, the computer, using its own style and borrowed ideas.
So I plan to stay with my own words. My own words used directly will always be a better representation of what I care about, and what I want to share.
This article comes straight from my heart and mind.
