Hey there,

Do you ever wonder what the hell we did before AI? Anything you could ever want to know is right at your fingertips. And even that’s not true; it’s right on the tip of our tongue since we can just tell our robots to look something up for us and they do it in seconds. “Alexa, what’s 8×8?” It’s really such a cool amenity to have, but at what cost? I’ll tell you what the hell we did before AI. We had WONDER. No one wonders about anything anymore. No more day dreaming, what ifs, or could you imagines. We simply don’t have to wonder. There’s a robot to do it for us and it saves us time right? And how sad is that. All of these devices and shortcuts were created to make our lives easier and potentially more fun. But it’s an overconsumption issue. Sure, salad is good and healthy for your body, but if you consume it in excess, but eventually you’re gonna get diarrhea.

Now I’m not against AI or anything, just like I’m not completely against fast-food. I just see how many people overuse it on such a large scale and that’s terrifying. We’re all becoming robot zombies walking around with mush in our brains. We can’t respond to one another or make an Instagram post without using AI to prompt us or type up our response. Also, I hate to burst the bubble for those of you who do; but yes we can tell when you respond to us and it’s actually ChatGPT. Just a little FYI. We never spoke in such sophisticated and formal matter before, so why is it all of a sudden happening now? Did we all take a linguistics course over the summer or what?? Like oh my Lord, I know you as a person, and I know you aren’t writing whole formal essays as a response to a text message or Facebook post. Just throw your hands up and let the trailer park out of your mouth if you’re mad; we can take it.

The instant accessibility we have to these snappy features is sweet, but it’s also such a detriment to our humanity. Don’t you remember the old VHS family videos that you would pull out every once in a while to watch and reminisce? The candid printed pictures in photo albums so big and clunky there was nowhere to store them? Far and few, but when you look at them, the memories come alive. Maybe even more so than now. The “remember when’s” are no longer. Our entire lives are documented with a series of pictures and videos on a daily basis and the memories lose their magic. We don’t do things just to have an experience anymore. We do them so we can take pictures and put it on social media, and have AI write a paragraph about how spectacular it was. I’ve said before, I’m a stay-at-home-mom, so I’m out and about with my child quite a bit. I see parents ALL THE TIME telling their kids to go back to playing how they were, or stop playing and smile, or go stand by this so they can take a picture, etc… I’m not parent shaming by any means, but I’ll be damned if I’m not technology shaming. We’ve become addicted to it. That dopamine boost when a bunch of people like the picture of our kid sliding down a slide at the coolest park in town. It’s a rush. Your brain is telling you how much you’re valued and how much people like and care about what you’re doing.

People do care. But do we really want to share all of the memories of our kids’ childhood on social media. Aren’t those things sacred? Pictures exclusively for you and your child to share as they get older, or pictures you send to the grandparents? We’re essentially exploiting the experiences of our children for that one guy you sat next to in algebra class in the 10th grade to see. Why does he need to see that? Why do acquaintances and people you haven’t spoken to in years need to see what your child is doing every day? They don’t. And they also don’t need this grandiose robot letter about how you’re such a good parent and take your kid to the park. Thanks for helping ChatGPT, but you know nothing about taking a kid to the park. That one picture perfect moment doesn’t negate the “there’s sand in my shoe!” Or the “the slide is too hot!” And don’t forget the “My pants are wet!!” after they go down the slide that there was clearly a puddle of water at the bottom. We all pretend to be so perfect and perpetuate our own anxiety on a daily basis by comparing your imperfections to the other “one moment of perfect” pictures we’re seeing all over the internet. We think we’re doing something wrong, and that certain people have it all together; and the truth is they don’t. None of us do. That mom you saw on Instagram with her perfectly clean kids in matching outfits just snapped because they all ran through the mud after that picture. That single dad taking his kids on adventures over the weekend feels lonely and anxious. The happy couple were arguing in the car before they took that perfect picture at someone’s wedding. We all do it. We’re all flawed. Yet we assume everyone else’s “picture perfect” posts to be facts. One picture of perfection must mean that their entire life is perfect. Especially when AI makes them sound so fluent in fancy words.

I probably sound like such a Negative Nancy at times, and truth be told; it’s true. I can highlight a lot of negative bs that goes on in the world and in my own life, while also realizing that life is short and sweet and we should cherish the time we get. And I believe that AI is taking some of that from us. It’s causing us to be these disingenuous humans who who solely rely on a computer to make connections with other people for us. Which means we aren’t connecting at all. And this saddens me. As if relationships aren’t already hard enough on their own, we’re adding a 3rd party to manage these relationships for us. We don’t know whether we’re getting the real thing, or if we’re talking to some automated robot response. Well, like I said earlier; we do, but you get the point. If I’m going through a hard time and looking for a friend to lean on, my friend is asking Geppetto (that’s what my wife and
I call ChatGPT, because well, GPT) how to respond to me. It’s not coming from the heart. It’s not coming from a place of heartfelt caring; it’s being generically curated by an AI response that calls on all the expert communication skills in the world to create the perfect response. I don’t want that. I want my imperfect friend offering imperfect advice and perhaps speaking from their own experiences. I don’t want perfect; I want real.

So, anyway, after my long-winded rant about how I mostly feel about AI; the short answer is yes. Yes I use ChatGPT. But i don’t use it for writing or responding to people. I don’t use it for Facebook and Instagram posts in an attempt to grab people’s attention. I want to grab attention all on my own, and make typos, and be awkward, and maybe sometimes offend people. I want to be real. I want to be raw. I want to be ridiculous. I want credibility for my own work and to feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m done. Do you want to know what I really use ChatGPT and AI for? I use it on road trips to see how the city I’m in ranks on the list of dangerous cities in America. I use it to find hole in the wall restaurants and coffee shops- though it sometimes fails me in that regard. Just because it’s a hole in the wall doesn’t mean it’s tasty and delicious with good service. I use it to create dinners out of the minimal ingredients in my cupboard before grocery shopping. I use it to ask which sweater I should wear over my dress. And the ultimate most important thing I use it for- is to make ridiculous pictures of the people I love the most as a joke and for everyone to take things a little less serious. Such as putting my father-in-law in a wheelchair in the nursing home with nurses feeding him… Because we all got a good laugh out of that one. I used it to put my dad in footie pajamas having a movie night with my dog who was also in matching footie pajamas. I gave my baby and my grandpa matching afros. You get the idea.

So, overall, AI isn’t inherently bad. But just like anything else that is overused and misused it can lead to destruction. It can definitely be helpful in the appropriate situation, but it can cause such a detriment as well; such as to learning things. I have a love hate relationship with Geppetto. I want my child to grow up and have to learn things the hard way sometimes. Not just open an app and get all the facts in an instant. So there you have it. I’m guilty. We’re all guilty. We use ChatGPT. But can we take a step back and maybe let our robots do the dishes and vacuum the floors instead of stealing our creativity? Thanks. That’s all for now.

Talk soon,

Corrah