What's AI Got That I Haven't?

A better question might be: What do I have that AI doesn’t?

I first thought about becoming a writer at about the same time ChatGPT became a thing.

Great. I finally found something that I really enjoy, and might actually want to pursue seriously, and here comes AI to do the job.

Lots of what I was reading seemed to confirm this, too. Writers talking about how it’s going to replace human writers, making our work obsolete.

Being employed at a high school, it had a small glimmer of truth.

Instantly, students were using it to write their essays, and it was challenging to spot the difference, especially since they could get the program to write at their usual writing level. No college level essays from a high school sophomore barely hanging on with a D.

Well shit.

It put me off of writing for quite a while.

Why spend months writing a book when AI could do it in minutes? Why invest the time and energy to become a decent writer when any knucklehead can knock out article after article with minimal effort?

But, the bug was already in me, and I found I enjoyed writing. The process itself was satisfying and cathartic. So, I continued to write anyway. At least I could say to my kid one day, “Hey look, I wrote a book once. Over 80,000 words of my own thoughts and emotions. Pretty cool right?”

I also continued to read articles from other writers. Soon, I came to realize that they hadn’t been replaced by AI. Their writing still had value. I’m reading it, and plenty of other people seem to be as well.

I asked myself: What do I have that AI doesn’t have?

The answer was simple: Experience. Real life experience.

AI didn’t spend its 20’s getting drunk and stoned, then had a kid and had to figure out how to be not only an adult, but an actual fucking role model.

AI never experienced an existential crisis.

AI doesn’t spend an unexpected amount of time trying to convince its kid that wearing a jacket is a good idea when it’s 30 degrees outside. And, that it’s no longer necessary, nor appropriate, when it’s going to be an 80 degree day.

AI didn’t go to college, drop out, go back to college, kind of drop out again, then decide to go ahead and finish it up in order to create a better life for itself and its family.

AI has never graduated from school, been arrested, had kids, had friends and relationships, had profound experiences on mushrooms, fallen in love, had its heart broken.

It’s never been happy, pissed off, or sad.

It’s never felt rage at injustice.

It’s never felt the exhilaration of conquering fear.

It’s never felt the utter delight of watching baby animals playing with each other.

AI hasn’t had to navigate an ever-changing world, realizing that things you could say when you were a teenager are not things that you can say today (and never should have said).

Yes, AI can spit facts at you, and do its best to simulate the human experience, but in the end it’s never actually lived. You have. I have.

That’s an edge we will always have, because no matter what kind of technology comes, we will always have the experience of living our own unique lives, with a perspective that is all our own.

It will always be a tool. Hammers don’t replace carpenters, calculators and computers don’t replace mathematicians, and ChatGPT won’t replace writers.

Embrace all of those experiences- the good and the bad, the happy and sad. Those lived experiences are what shape us, and make us who we are.