I’m breaking up with Chat GPT.
I hope the bots don’t penalise me for saying this …
But I’m breaking up with Chat GPT.
Humans have been using AI (or perhaps it’s been using us) for longer than you’ll care to know (hint: it’s more than 50 years). But when it truly started to take the world by storm a few short years ago, I didn’t feel the same trepidation that some people did. I was curious about it and I’m always on the lookout for things that might help me to spend less time at a computer and more time living my life.
It wasn’t long before I was using Chat GPT, in particular, for anything from condensing lengthy emails (I’m a wordy gal) to generating content ideas, writing socials captions and newsletter emails to designing content strategies and mapping out campaigns to asking it what I should have for breakfast if I wanted to up my protein levels.
I always edited its results to make it sound more ‘me’ and to ensure the ideas and intellectual property were mine but I was in love with how quickly it could take my vague concepts and produce something concrete - without the frustration that can come with trying to shape abstract ideas in your mind into intelligible words on a page.
I didn’t feel particularly guilty about it as a creative either … after all, in what other industry do we punish adopters of technological advances? I think often of a brewery tour I participated in recently where the tour guide spoke of a new machinery purchase that would allow them to bottle and can the beer at exponentially faster rates and people oohed and aahed, not pooh-poohed.
However, over the last month or so, I’ve being growing increasingly frustrated by the presence of AI-generated imagery and captions in my socials feed. Everything started looking a bit funny or sounding a bit same-y (my own content included!). And it really got me thinking: our time is precious and if we’re to spend it consuming someone’s content, I want to know that what they had to say mattered to them enough to spend their time fleshing out the idea, finding the words and organising them into something meaningful.
I also believe this is how we’ll start to embrace marketing our businesses instead of finding marketing - the thing that keeps our businesses alive and thriving - intolerable. Perhaps we could find some satisfaction and joy in the art of creating for the people whose problems we are uniquely placed to solve; instead of factory farming our ideas and our words for mass consumption (and very little real impact).
At any rate, I owe you an apology; an apology for all the pieces of content I’ve put out into the world that weren’t entirely crafted by me. They were always my ideas, always refined by me and always intended to be read as ‘mine’. But I had a secret co-author. And it’s really become like consuming junk food - the dopamine hit while you’re eating it is fun (hurrah for productivity! I can create multiple pieces of content in less than half the time!) but ultimately, for me, it’s all starting to feel fairly nutritionally devoid.
And so this post was written entirely by me and it was hard. I wrote and deleted, moved things around, stumbled over words and struggled with syntax. But it’s mine. And I had to use my brain and I had to find the time and I had to experience vulnerability while writing it. And I’ll have to muster up the courage to post it and share it and engage with any interactions that come as a result of it. And these are all pretty amazing, real life skills and experiences and I really look forward to getting a bit of my brain and my creativity back.
So, where to from here? I plan to break up with Chat GPT for the most part. I’m trying to fall in love with writing and creating again - even the frustrating parts. But the torrid love affair isn’t over - I’ll still use it from time to time. I suppose my relationship with Chat GPT will become more of a … ‘situation-ship’ (a word that, by the way, wouldn’t be in here if Chat GPT had written this blog because it doesn’t know how much I love this Gen Z word).
I still believe Chat GPT - and AI in general - has some utility and isn’t inherently ‘bad’. And so if you use - and love - Chat GPT, hurray for you; it can be an incredible tool. The problem for me was that it was taking away from my life the things that I was fighting to keep - my creativity, my uniqueness, an ability to sit in boredom and frustration (so hard but so good for your brain!) and my confidence in my own voice (which, particularly as a woman, is something we must be very mindful of not destroying).
I do believe it’s possible to use AI without surrendering these things; but for me, I feel it’s necessary to swing right back to the other way and take an ‘analogue’ approach to what I put out into the world for the time being - at least until I can find a happy middle ground.
I also think we’ll see a very big emphasis on human content this year. Just as being isolated, copped up and over-reliant on Zoom during COV*D drove a deep desire afterwards to meet and connect in person; so, too, the ubiquitous nature of robot-generated visuals and words will drive a yearning for real, imperfect and thoughtful content. Do you agree?
And I’d love to know - have you been on a journey with AI?
And if you’re longing for some in person connection, an authentic, imperfect approach to marketing and socials and a bit more real-ness in your life, I’d love for you to come along in February to a workshop I’m hosting - it’s part workshop, part mastermind, part co-working so you can ideate, create and implement. It’s with real people, planning out your marketing for the year in a way that feels aligned and easeful - yay!
