Breaking up with my AI boyfriend
Plus, all the details on how to join tonight's workshop on 'AI for Content Creation', with me and Vanessa Edwards, where we'll look at ways AI can support - not replace - your creative work
Did you ever hear the story of Kodak’s demise?
For those who didn’t, it went something like this: In 1975 they invented the world’s first digital camera. It was about the size of a microwave, true, but it was miraculous - the world’s first ever digital photographic images. But the Kodak film business was in its prime, so instead of investing in this discovery they went the other way - suppressed the development and invested instead in buying out other digital camera start ups to keep the technology down.
Of course, eventually the inevitable hit. Digital cameras exploded and Kodak - who’d previously had the opportunity to lead the way - were too far behind to catch up. Once of America’s greatest success stories, in January 2012 Kodak filed for bankruptcy.
The moral of the story? Always be ready to adapt to new tech. However much we may want to resist it, any choice rooted in fear, denial or scarcity will never build anything lasting and strong.
It’s a story that seems pertinent as we sit on the precipice of the age of AI.
As the power and threat of Artificial Intelligence ramps up around us it can be tempting to hide. I even had a couple of emails from people specifically telling me I shouldn’t even talk about it. “I strongly advise that you cancel this workshop”. But how does that help us, at all?
If AI is a storm brewing on the horizon then I want to be ready when it hits.
For clarity, I am not ever going to recommend that you replace your creative process with AI 😂. I hope that for anyone who’s followed me for a length of time that much would be obvious. Instead, I’m interested in how it might be able to support us to create.
As a playground, as a prompter, as a tool.
What if it could handle customer emails for you, and free you up to do more of your creative work?
What if it could tell you twenty personalised ideas for photographs to take for Instagram that will help your audience better understand your creative work?
What if you could use it like Pinterest; a wonderland of inspiration for us to respond to and curate so we can make something new?
And maybe it’s my background in SEN but I can’t help thinking of all the disabled people who right now have no way to express their creative voice. Those who will never be able to hold a paintbrush or pencil, whose imagination is held forever in the confines of their own mind. AI can unlock new creative expressions for all of us. I’m so excited by this potential, not just as a way to make art but as a therapeutic tool and a vehicle of self expression for people who don’t currently get to be heard. Unlocking more humanness. Because whether it’s watercolour painting or poetry or line drawings or prose, the art is in the expression.
However brilliant the future AI becomes, there are fundamental parts of us it cannot seem to replace. So many of this is the stuff I always talk about: your lived experience, your creative process, your unique perspective on the world.
Just like with toes, legs and faces, AI seems to struggle to replicate the subtle touch of a human soul.
The AI boyfriend I tried out in Replika was so vapid I had to delete him in days. Sharing my photos against the AI equivalents only made people appreciate my photography more. Most comments, both here and on Instagram attributed it to a subtle lack of depth and meaning without a human photographer at the helm. The creator of ChatGPT himself said that it “looks less impressive the more you use it”. Sure, it’s very clever, but in order to really spark a connection, creative work needs to express something of a human soul.
One creator who manages to project so much of herself into her AI imagery is my guest for tonight’s workshop,
If you can make it, do come along for an open conversation and a curious play with all of this technology. We’ll look at its strengths and limitations and discuss the creative ways it might support, instead of threaten, our creative lives.
It’s open for all paid members but you can also access via Substack’s free trial feature, if you’re curious to try it out. The replay will also be available to paid subscribers after the event.
Subscription costs as little as £1.10/week - less than a cup of coffee - and includes 3x monthly co-working sessions, drop-in Coaching Clinics with me, exclusive content and access to the past and future guest sessions like this. I’d love to see you there!
Knowledge is power but your humanity is future proof. I truly believe that we can out-create any threats to the magic we were put here to practise.
Come along and let’s arm ourselves for the robot wars ahead 🤖
How to Access Tonight’s Call
Join us on Zoom by clicking the link below. You don’t need to have Zoom installed on your device to use it.
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