Hi, Sarah here! I’m writing this completely freehand, no notes, and no AI to help me format it perfectly. So bear with me on this little journey we’re about to take into all my scrambled thoughts on AI lately.
Is anyone else experiencing AI fatigue? I hopped on my business Instagram for the first time in forever recently, and the very first post that scrolled into view was Mark Zuck’s wide and strangely dilated eyeballs as he gushed over his new Muse by Meta announcement. I watched for 3 seconds and sighed as yet ANOTHER artificial product was being pushed onto the masses that nobody asked for.
I’m not naive: I know we live in a world where as humans will always push to advance, and AI is just the latest and newest advancement that we have discovered. We also live in a world where people are greedy, and will throw morals and good judgement out of the window if it means putting a few more bucks in their pockets. Or the downfall of humanity apparently.
When AI was fairly new, no one really understood what it was or how it impacted everything. We were all just having fun making fun little ChatGPT images and doing challenges, and next thing we know we’ve got the hugging face incident and developers are warning that AI could kill all humans if we don’t slow down.
It’s a lot to process. I used to think that AI was much like the digitalization of art and media, and that people who were very much against AI weren’t unlike the people who cried out that computers were killing creativity. But we all moved on from the letterpress (mostly) and hopped on InDesign fairly easily. So I thought AI technology was somewhat the same.
Then came the fact that AI was stealing from artists, causing water shortages, data centers were polluting the air and making neighborhoods unliveable, and is now being used for military campaigns and mass surveillance.
It’s a lot to process.
AI is in every program that I use. It’s integrated on my phone, on my computer, on my social media apps: its everywhere. There’s no choice in whether I want to use AI or not: its a necessity.
And a welcome necessity?
I can’t say that I don’t enjoy the ease of planning, researching, mocking up ideas and laying out projects that AI provides. The software I use most is Claude, and I don’t need to be on the top plan or constantly buy tokens for Claude to provide the simple project support I need.
Because at the end of the day, I see AI as another tool. Outside of work I can express my opinions and vote for certain candidates more freely. At work, AI is just another extension of the programs that I use to get things done.
I no longer do cute little challenges or trends, or generate videos that can easily be shot from my phone. And I don’t clone myself for videos when I can just hop on camera and say my thoughts the imperfect human way. But I do use AI to proof, plan, and provide the extra support that a small business owner needs.
At this point, I feel that using AI responsibly and with care is all we can do, while as humans we figure this out.