Thank you for being a voice in the wilderness. You have perfectly articulated why I, too, have never used ChatGPT and never will. I retired 2 years ago after more than 20 years of teaching college students, when ChatGPT reared its ugly head. I know someone is going to have to figure out how to teach students to think in the age of AI but I knew it wouldn’t be me. Now it seems to be everywhere and I appreciate not feeling so alone in opposing it.
For years, I have been sporadically grinding out two very different books. The channel from my brain to the keyboard, and the keyboard to the paper has been fraught with self-doubt, procrastination, and fear. Last night, my husband and my childhood friend were urging me to finish one/both. Not for the first time, AI entered the conversation. I have shrunk from that suggestion in the past, and I did again, last night. I feel like that's cheating. I feel like it's lazy. I even feel it's dangerous to cede my creative control to the monolithic monster of AI. I've always been so afraid of surrendering to AI that I've never allowed myself to delve into my thoughts about it. This morning, I read your essay, and a warm, mellow bell chimed in my chest. Yes, I said! LaDonna gets it! Today, I've made my final decision. No AI for me. Ever. I will return to the exquisite struggle of crafting MY stories from MY heart, with MY brain. How else could I ever claim them as my own. Thank you for the clarity.
Oh Susan, I hear you. I have a book I've been writing since 2019 and it will likely be a few more years before I finish it. Writing it feels like pulling out my lungs. In the meantime, I wrote another book in the space of six months and that one just tumbled out of me like an exhalation. Still, the things I have LEARNED in the years I've been wrestling with the first book. Not just things about writing but about myself. Brilliant, beautiful, important things. Difficult, yes, but so very necessary. "Exquisite struggle," indeed! I wish you all the joy of it.
I truly feel the only thing that might save my writing is my story. chat gpt can’t live my life on the farm for me unless I used it, and i’d sooner piss my pants and walk into Sephora whistling.
The whole AI project makes me deeply uneasy on so many levels: that its knowledge banks have basically been built by using people's creative work (images, words, so on) and personal data without their knowledge or consent; that it uses enormous amounts of energy (and consumes vast plots of arable land for its server farms); all this before even addressing its corrosive effect on our ability to think critically, or even to identify physical reality. I have heard of some very interesting uses in research (both scientific and historical), and I don't want to just reflexively reject it, though. I am old enough to have experienced the transition from analog to digital in my working (and personal) life. We gained a lot, but we lost things, too. In the early days of desktop publishing, everyone suddenly thought they could be a designer using the magical tools in the apple computer (Fonts! Typefaces! Wowee!). After some time, people realized that maybe designers actually had useful visual communication skills, and were still worth paying. But the designers had to learn to use a whole new set of tools, and many in my generation found the digital tools much less satisfying to use than the analog ones had been. We are inside the vortex of a technological, economic, and social revolution every bit as profound as the industrial revolution. We none of us know where it may lead, but for sure we cannot go back. The best we can do is to keep hold of our own humanity, and try not to forget our place in the physical world: mammals, a part of the web of life, which requires our care to continue.
Thank you so much for writing this, Beth, I love your perspective. And you are so right--we gain a lot as we advance, but there is so much that we lose. I just want to be in the continual practice of counting the cost and considering, for myself, if it is worth it.
Keeping hold of your humanity: yes, you are doing that, and by sharing your lived experience so articulately here in this virtual space, you help us readers find human connection. Thank you.
I detest ChatGPT /Ai in all its forms...in spite of and because of the horror of my eldest grandkids. No way josé. Fon't even use SIRI. NO🤖 in my phone/iPad.
Perhaps. But I'm not convinced that's a bad thing. Progress isn't always a good thing, and I've known enough tech bros to know that the priority there is innovation, not consideration. They want to be the first and the fastest and the best. They're not asking a lot of questions about if what they're doing should be done. You know? I think it is always a good idea to consider the cost. And also to ask, "If I do this, who does it benefit? Who does it hurt? What systems does it uphold?" A bit of consideration.
Thank you for being a voice in the wilderness. You have perfectly articulated why I, too, have never used ChatGPT and never will. I retired 2 years ago after more than 20 years of teaching college students, when ChatGPT reared its ugly head. I know someone is going to have to figure out how to teach students to think in the age of AI but I knew it wouldn’t be me. Now it seems to be everywhere and I appreciate not feeling so alone in opposing it.
For years, I have been sporadically grinding out two very different books. The channel from my brain to the keyboard, and the keyboard to the paper has been fraught with self-doubt, procrastination, and fear. Last night, my husband and my childhood friend were urging me to finish one/both. Not for the first time, AI entered the conversation. I have shrunk from that suggestion in the past, and I did again, last night. I feel like that's cheating. I feel like it's lazy. I even feel it's dangerous to cede my creative control to the monolithic monster of AI. I've always been so afraid of surrendering to AI that I've never allowed myself to delve into my thoughts about it. This morning, I read your essay, and a warm, mellow bell chimed in my chest. Yes, I said! LaDonna gets it! Today, I've made my final decision. No AI for me. Ever. I will return to the exquisite struggle of crafting MY stories from MY heart, with MY brain. How else could I ever claim them as my own. Thank you for the clarity.
Oh Susan, I hear you. I have a book I've been writing since 2019 and it will likely be a few more years before I finish it. Writing it feels like pulling out my lungs. In the meantime, I wrote another book in the space of six months and that one just tumbled out of me like an exhalation. Still, the things I have LEARNED in the years I've been wrestling with the first book. Not just things about writing but about myself. Brilliant, beautiful, important things. Difficult, yes, but so very necessary. "Exquisite struggle," indeed! I wish you all the joy of it.
Feeling you! And no AI can ever generate felt sense bodymind connection through the words universe. Palms joined at the heart :-). Muito Obridago.
It is never a waste of my time to consume your writing, LaDonna. Thank you for that.
I truly feel the only thing that might save my writing is my story. chat gpt can’t live my life on the farm for me unless I used it, and i’d sooner piss my pants and walk into Sephora whistling.
Thanks for writing this 🖤
The whole AI project makes me deeply uneasy on so many levels: that its knowledge banks have basically been built by using people's creative work (images, words, so on) and personal data without their knowledge or consent; that it uses enormous amounts of energy (and consumes vast plots of arable land for its server farms); all this before even addressing its corrosive effect on our ability to think critically, or even to identify physical reality. I have heard of some very interesting uses in research (both scientific and historical), and I don't want to just reflexively reject it, though. I am old enough to have experienced the transition from analog to digital in my working (and personal) life. We gained a lot, but we lost things, too. In the early days of desktop publishing, everyone suddenly thought they could be a designer using the magical tools in the apple computer (Fonts! Typefaces! Wowee!). After some time, people realized that maybe designers actually had useful visual communication skills, and were still worth paying. But the designers had to learn to use a whole new set of tools, and many in my generation found the digital tools much less satisfying to use than the analog ones had been. We are inside the vortex of a technological, economic, and social revolution every bit as profound as the industrial revolution. We none of us know where it may lead, but for sure we cannot go back. The best we can do is to keep hold of our own humanity, and try not to forget our place in the physical world: mammals, a part of the web of life, which requires our care to continue.
Thank you so much for writing this, Beth, I love your perspective. And you are so right--we gain a lot as we advance, but there is so much that we lose. I just want to be in the continual practice of counting the cost and considering, for myself, if it is worth it.
Keeping hold of your humanity: yes, you are doing that, and by sharing your lived experience so articulately here in this virtual space, you help us readers find human connection. Thank you.
A I cannot write like you. It is soulless.
I detest ChatGPT /Ai in all its forms...in spite of and because of the horror of my eldest grandkids. No way josé. Fon't even use SIRI. NO🤖 in my phone/iPad.
Keep a very FIRM grip on that steering wheel, because things are gonna get bumpier ☹️🤦🏼♂️
I’m conflicted and don’t mean to be snarky, but could these perspectives reflect those of 21st C Luddites?
Perhaps. But I'm not convinced that's a bad thing. Progress isn't always a good thing, and I've known enough tech bros to know that the priority there is innovation, not consideration. They want to be the first and the fastest and the best. They're not asking a lot of questions about if what they're doing should be done. You know? I think it is always a good idea to consider the cost. And also to ask, "If I do this, who does it benefit? Who does it hurt? What systems does it uphold?" A bit of consideration.