How I Found My Way Back in the Age of AIfeatured

AI has unlocked so much for us creatives. It can help us summarize articles, develop organized strategies and plans, generate imagery, revise and translate verbose language, personalize content per segment, and so much more. It can help create meal plans, analyze products, create memes featuring themselves, “diagnose” potential ailments… the list goes on and on.

It wasn’t until recently that I began using generative AI for personal use from the comfort of my couch. While I have been leveraging it for productivity at work, I thought it was time to deepen our relationship outside of the office.

I mean, why not?

I began asking AI to build me weekly menus and even had it compare skincare products to validate my purchases. As I did that, AI began asking me questions and even took on the persona of a female “gal pal.” Needless to say, it freaked me out a little bit.

And while AI can do all these things to help us be more productive, I have learned that it has its limits. I can now decipher language fully built within the platform, and let me tell you – I am not impressed.

It likes to talk in passive tense and run-on sentences. It’s voice tends to be robotic and wordy, often saying nothing in way too many words. And don’t even get me started with its excessive use of the “em dash” aka the freakishly long hyphen.

I am not here to tell you that AI is the devil. But I am here to tell you how it is possible to find your way back to yourself in this age of AI.

Hear me out…

As I sat at my desk on a mundane Wednesday, I stared at my computer screen; it was filled with endless internet tabs, a desktop filled with documents to file at a later date, and endless unread emails causing me some serious anxiety. As I stared at my screen longer, I began loathing it. I had a running list of to-dos in my planner, and my computer was only helping half-start 50% of them.

I realized it was time to do something radical, drastic, and maybe even a little crazy. I looked inside my bookbag and saw my tattered little notebook with the faded little flowers on it, it seemed to be calling to me in this very moment. I grabbed a pen, not my favorite one, but it would do. I then allowed the pen to paper do all the work. I let my hand write all of the ideas floating in my head.

And guess what happened?

I couldn’t make my hand stop. It became a spiritual moment as I let my creativity flow through me in the same exact way I had fallen in love with the art of writing in the first place.

I looked down at my paper and couldn’t help but smile. These words were mine and mine alone. I would not be giving my little AI Gal Pal access to them. They were clear, original, and free of em dashes. They were my works of art from my heart and my brain, not the collective cold machine that is fed by the masses daily.

I found myself back to myself in the age of AI by disconnecting from all that is digital for just a moment. And I am so glad that I did; my soul needed this moment more than I realized.

Nothing in this world can replace that feeling of allowing spirit to write for you, of letting your guts spill onto the canvas of a blank page.

Letting art come to life through analog is so underrated in the age of AI. I would usually say that’s okay, but it’s really not.

To all my creatives out there (which is every single human in the world that produces anything at all): This is my rally call. Be selective in what you feed AI, and never forget that brilliance comes to life through analog. If you forget that long enough, you may lose sight of yourself, of your passion process, of the fire that lives inside of you.

When in doubt, grab a pen and paper.

Love Deeply and Forever,