AI is everywhere and I hate it

Take me back to the stone age.

Jul 23, 2024

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This voiceover was done in one take with all imperfections included - so you may hear some background noise or me stumbling over my words.

Oh, my dear, AI. How should I address you? Are you human? Or are you dancer?

But before I continue, I guess I should admit I’ve already lied to you. You’re not dear to me. Not at all. Although you’ve lied and lied about a lot of things so I don’t feel one bit bad about my little fib to you. But from here on out, it’s just the truth, I promise.

I cannot stand you, AI. You are a plague on my computer. An annoying pop-up in every program. You’re getting to be as maddening as an ad on my phone, taking up the entire screen until I tell you to go away.

But you just won’t take no for an answer.

I do not want or need your help to write my content.

I do not want your help to create me stock photos (unless they’re blue raspberries, my one weakness).

I do not want your help to summarize a PDF document and I hope to God no one uses you on PDFs I send to them.

I do not need you, AI, but you oh so desperately need me and creators like me.

We’re the ones that made you. All those words you snack on? All those visuals you’re eyeing? Those were made by us, the humans, the creatives, the ones you wish you could be.

The ones corporations desperately wish they didn’t have to hire. And now they don’t. Because they have the next best thing: the human creative knock-off.

So no, AI, you and I can never be friends. We can’t even be cordial. I do not like you.

Why I don’t use AI

Now that the dramatics are out of my system, I’ll talk a little more like a “normal” person (try and copy that AI).

But before I dive into all of my reasonings, I want to make a little disclaimer. I think there’s some good reasons to use AI. I’ve used it for a few purposes which I’ll detail below, and I’ve heard others use it for good purposes, too.

However, there is an overall trend that I’ve seen where some people are pressuring others to use AI. They’re telling small business owners, “If you don’t use AI, you will fall behind. Your business will suffer. You need to get on board and maximize your efficiency. And if you don’t, you’re just plain stupid.”

Okay maybe not in those exact words, but that’s the gist so many are putting out into the world.

And this is problematic. Just like all silver-bullet business advice, it’s just not that simple. What works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else.

I’m writing this piece to get my own feelings out, to relate to others who also want to dig in their heels and refuse the future AI has to offer, and to also open up a dialogue about AI that isn’t just revolved around productivity but the human place in business and society.

If you use AI, I don’t hate you for it, that’s your choice and it’s valid. If you don’t use AI, again, that’s your choice and it’s valid. These are my thoughts and feelings for my own little reality and no one has to agree with me or change their practices just because I don’t like AI.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in!

And start with the two areas in which I have used AI in my business:

To create images of blue raspberries. No matter what you’ve been told, these do not exist in nature. Sad, isn’t it? I’ve tried photoshopping raspberries to be blue but it always ends up with ugly images that take forever to produce. I’ve tried painting raspberries blue and photographing them but that is, quite honestly, kind of gross and it ends up with dull blue raspberries. And who wants that? So AI helps with this a lot and it sparks joy for me.
Transcribing audio to text. I used Otter.ai to help with transcripts in my Green Web Design Course. And I used Premiere Pro’s transcribing tool to create captions. This is technically AI in the way society has defined it and hand transcribing my words is not something I was about to do nor did I have the time to do it or the funds to pay someone to do it. And like all AI, it wasn’t perfect so I had to go back through and edit, but it was a great starting point.

These are the only two areas I’ve used it for in my business. I think there’s other good use cases for AI, too, but for the most part, anything I do that’s creative, I want to do by myself or with other people.

For me, this includes brainstorming, sketching, ideating, writing, designing, etc. And a lot of these processes, for me, start with pen and paper, nothing computer-based.

The tool I want to focus on the most to describe my negative feelings towards AI is ChatGPT, as that’s the main one people rave about.

I have a confession: I’ve never used ChatGPT.

Yes, I do have an entire post about asking ChatGPT for sustainable design tips but Emma of Little Fox Design and the writer of Green Graphic Design here on Substack was the one who conversed with ChatGPT. She just sent me what it spit out.

On the one hand, maybe I don’t have any right to say I think ChatGPT isn’t very helpful as I’ve never used it. On the other hand, I feel like I know enough to know it won’t help me.

Some areas I’ve heard other business owners say they’ve used ChatGPT as an assistant for include:

Writing blog posts and other long-form content
Ideating topics for social media and other platforms
Writing subject lines that will grab people’s attention
Writing placeholder text to avoid using Lorem Ipsum
Helping with researching a topic

And I’m sure there’s tons more! But this is a good starting point. Out of those 5 listed above, I see one of those that I would use ChatGPT for: Writing placeholder text to use instead of using Lorem Ipsum.

Why? Because Lorem Ipsum is confusing to clients. All us designers know what it is and that it’s placeholder, but it can feel very odd to someone not as familiar with it. So if you’re just swapping for some AI generated placeholder text that will use more on brand words than basically gibberish, that’s a great use! It’s not meant to be final, it’s only meant to support your design.

And some might argue “well, blog posts and other things ChatGPT spits out get edited, too!!!”

Which, yes, that’s true, but for me, I find writing is easier to brain dump out rather than starting from a machine-written template that I have to edit and fact check.

If I used ChatGPT to write this post, for example, it wouldn’t have given me a dramatic intro where I talk to AI like its some long lost lover or enemy or whatever it is. And while that intro isn’t for everybody, it’s my voice, it’s my feelings, it’s my dramatic flair.

ChatGPT is white bread. At least the starting point is. It’s not unique or new or innovative. It’s spitting out repeated ideas that it doesn’t even comprehend.

Even in the post about fact-checking ChatGPT’s sustainable design tips, it got a lot wrong. Some of the tips were completely false. It’s not good for research. ChatGPT doesn’t cite sources, you have no idea where it’s pulling from. And if you’re going to spend your time fact checking it, wouldn’t it be easier to read the resources, analyze it, and then put it in your own words?

I also think using it for getting content ideas or other ideas is kind of backwards. The best ideas are those rooted in life. In your life. In the real world that we all experience. We all come from different backgrounds and that’s a wonderful thing for sharing our stories.

I guess my biggest question is, if you’re using ChatGPT to come up with content ideas because you don’t have any for that week, do you need to post anything?

If you have nothing to say, should you say something?

And I know that there’s recommendations for how often you should post and that this can be tied to people’s incomes, but I’m genuinely asking. We’re in a world flooded with content and distraction and ideas. If we truly don’t have an idea, should we add more to the clutter just because some algorithm says we should?

I am personally of the mind that, no, we shouldn’t. That’s why I don’t always send a newsletter every week. Some weeks I don’t have anything to say. Others I’m bogged down by other work and don’t have the time.

And ChatGPT could solve both of those problems for me but I don’t want it to. Because I don’t think they’re actually problems, I think they’re just human and life and that’s okay.

Plus, I genuinely enjoy writing. Why would I want a machine to do for me what I already love?

“But what if I’m not good at writing? What if I don’t enjoy it?”

Not everyone is like me. My love for writing is the reason I’m here on Substack and in your inboxes. If I hated it, I would be elsewhere.

And there might be huge pressure for everyone to write long form content. Blogs help SEO. Newsletters are a great way to stay connected to your audience. It lives longer than an Instagram caption or LinkedIn post.

But writing is not the only way to connect with your audience.

When TikTok was blowing up and business owners were jumping ship to be on there, I couldn’t have cared less. I hate short form video content, both creating it and consuming it. When Reels blew up on Instagram, I kept posting images. I created one Reel because I had an idea for it and it was a 0/10 experience for me. Never again.

I blocked out the noise of “you should be doing this” and instead asked myself “what do I want to be doing?” I followed those answers because what I want, what I’m good at, and what I enjoy are more important to me than following arbitrary rules and trends.

So if you hate writing and only use ChatGPT to help with blog posts and other long form content, but don’t have funds to hire a copywriter, you could ask yourself: Is there a different way I can connect with my audience?

Do you enjoy making videos? Get on TikTok, keep making Reels, start a YouTube channel. Whatever is helping your reach and impact.

Enjoy talking out your thoughts? Start a podcast. Post your podcast transcripts as blog posts. Or just talk your thoughts out into Otter or another transcription tool and let it write what’s already in your head.

Using a tool like Otter is so different from ChatGPT because it’s your thoughts being spit out. Isn’t it better we all contribute our own thoughts, even if they’re imperfectly said, than write with a machine and edit whatever it spits out?

It feels more human and more real to me.

You might disagree with every word I’m saying. I might sound like a boomer. For all you know I yell at kids to get off my lawn in my spare time (for the record, I don’t). But isn’t there something magical about work that an actual person creates, flaws and all?

As people it seems we chase so hard after perfection that we become paralyzed in the process and ChatGPT promises this in a more painless way. And ChatGPT isn’t the only culprit.

The AI craze in every platform

I’ve given ChatGPT a pretty hard time so far when AI is making its way into every program and website under the sun.

When I open Photoshop, Adobe prompts me and wants me to try out their new generative fill.

Squarespace wants me to try their AI writing tool.

Thinkific wants me to use their AI tool to create course content and learning materials.

Adobe wants me to use AI in Acrobat to summarize documents so I don’t have to *gasp* actually read something.

Google wants to offer me quick solutions to my searches with half-baked AI answers that aren’t always correct.

Windows wants me to use their Copilot AI on my computer.

It’s like Facebook shoving “for you” content down your feed. Instagram prioritizing accounts you don’t follow. LinkedIn saying “you might find this interesting.”

AI is taking the worst parts of social media and running with it. It’s making itself feel like ads. It’s making me feel like I’m scrolling a website to get to a recipe but have to contend with the author’s life story and a barrage of video, image, and text advertisements when all I want to know is how the fuck to make chocolate chip cookies.

All I want to do is go into an Adobe program or Squarespace or Thinkific and work. That’s all I want to do. I’m there for one purpose. Not to test out some fancy new feature I never in my wildest dreams would’ve asked for.

But what’s even more dystopian is that companies are putting ChatGPT and other AI tool experience as a requirement or a plus on job descriptions. Why is being able to write a ChatGPT prompt a skill we’re collectively trying to cultivate?

Yes, it’s faster than writing a whole blog post from scratch. But faster isn’t always better.

And yes, there’s a lot of systemic bullshit going on that makes AI an attractive option to many. Its promises of time saving and efficiency would be tantalizing to so many living paycheck to paycheck and feeling like there’s not enough time in the day to do everything they want or need to do.

But AI isn’t a solution. In my opinion, AI is a symptom of our broken systems. It’s an individualistic solution in a world where results are what’s most important. And while AI promises help to individuals who are struggling, it’s the players at the top that are going to reap the most from it and leave those at the bottom to continue to struggle in the long term.

AI won’t actually help us.

It’s just helping to uphold the status quo.

Corporations are laying off workers and replacing them with AI. I think the true crime here is not in the lay offs but in the lack of safety nets we have as a society. Because in a society we should all take care of one another.

Some are saying AI will help us all work less and get our lives back but if you’re being laid off and replaced by a machine, you’re not better off. You’ve lost your income. You could lose your home. Your food. Your healthcare. Your life.

AI isn’t a solution to help the 99%. It’s to help the 1% get richer by not having to hire as many people. But the propaganda around it is telling the rest of us that we can get our time back. We’ll be so much more efficient. We’ll make more money in less working time.

But it’s not true. None of that is true.

AI is stealing from us. It’s stealing our jobs, and not the boring ones it should be taking but the ones that are designed for the human mind.

I don’t know about you, but I want free time to create my own art. Not the ability to click a button to make art because I have no free time.

It’s stealing the creative process from us. It’s stealing our desire to enjoy being a person and learning something. It’s stealing our voices, our artistic sides.

It’s not adding to our lives.

AI more often than not leaves me feeling badly after using it.

Every time I’ve used AI whether for fun or testing or whatever, I end up frustrated.

I’m frustrated that it won’t do exactly what I want.

I’m frustrated that the loading time takes too long (instant gratification brain rot anyone?)

I’m frustrated they want me to make an account.

It might be faster for certain things but the feelings it leaves me with aren’t worth the extra time I’d gain.

AI leaves me with the same feelings social media leaves me with and I don’t want to feel those things perpetually. I don’t want to constantly be frustrated, angry, or upset.

The little things in life, even in my job, can bring me a lot of joy. I find a hint of joy when I stumble on just the right font or just the right stock photo. Or when I get my words just right for a newsletter or blog post.

My existence on this planet might not mean anything to some greater purpose, but to me it means to live in a way that sparks joy and leaves me fulfilled, in whatever that means to me and me alone.

And AI is not one of those things. It, in fact, is stealing joy, not creating it.

I just rambled for way too long, but I’d love to know: What are your thoughts on using AI? Do you use it? Do you love it? Do you hate it?