Don’t Delegate the Best Parts of Being Human

Over the last few months, I’ve noticed a rather disturbing trend: people outsourcing their hobbies, their passions—their very voice—to generative AI.

Sure, I knew that people were using AI models like ChatGPT to take notes for them in meetings or organize their calendar. I wasn’t thrilled when writers said they used it for brainstorming, and I cringed a bit (okay, a lot) when students started talking about using it during research.

But none of that surprised me, really.

Humans innately look for ways to make boring tasks faster and more efficient. Innovation is natural and important, and it always has some stumbling blocks along the way.

All that said, what I cannot fathom is the people who are delegating the best parts of their lives to AI.

In writing groups, I see daily posts about those who fed a few prompts into AI and called it writing a novel. Even if that were truly “writing” (it’s not), why would any storyteller want their book to be written by someone (or rather, something) else?

Look, I get that if writing isn’t your thing, it might be tempting to have the robot write that super boring professional email for you. But what I don’t understand is why someone would willingly and actively choose to delegate their hobby or passion project. I don’t get why they’d purposefully try to train AI to “sound like them.”

We’ve all seen The Little Mermaid, right? Feeding AI your writing is like signing Ursula’s contract without even getting a decent pair of legs out of the deal.

Best case scenario, it does exactly what you’re hoping it will and learns to sound just like you. In this ideal state, you’re basically inviting the AI to come and steal your man (see also: joy, pay, recognition) for a little temporary convenience.

And let’s be clear here—AI is nowhere close to this scenario yet.

Much like the way that AI still doesn’t understand how hands work when it comes to visual art, it struggles with the concept of “voice.”

AI is great at “generic human” text—the sort of filler fluff that makes your eyes glaze over while reading. It’s great at sounding like everyone and no one. The false notes aren’t always easy to point out the way you can with the wrong number of fingers on a hand, but nonetheless, they’re there. There is an inauthenticity, an “uncanny valley” feeling, that hides within AI outputs. You can’t exactly say what it is, but you still know it’s there.

Whenever I see someone using Midjourney to make “art” or ChatGPT to generate “writing,” I honestly just feel sorry for them. I feel sorry that they saw the beauty of the world around them, and chose to have some numbers in a computer do the fun part of being human.

Because being human means learning and growing.

It means being terrible at something until you eventually get better.

It means mistakes and frustrations, but also, that impossibly good feeling when you finally improve.

It means putting your heart to paper, and letting others catch a glimpse.

Even if we could train AI to be as technically strong as human writer or artist, it wouldn’t matter. Because AI cannot have a human heart.

It can’t think, and feel, and love. It doesn’t have opinions or personality or voice of its own.

It is merely an echo. A mirror.

An imitation.

AI can’t capture things that are intrinsic to being human.

And more importantly—why would you ever want it to?

What I’ve been up to lately

Holiday weeks are usually pretty quiet in freelance world (at least in my experience), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. A lot of my time has been taken up with testing things for Wirecutter, and while I can’t share the results of those just yet, I did want to share one of my recent Wirecutter articles.

After months (and months) of testing, I updated Wirecutter’s The Best Medical Alert Systems article with new picks. If you or someone you care about is looking for a system like this, I hope you’ll check it out. Feel free to ask me any questions that you may have, too! There are a lot of predatory companies out there in this category, and doing your research is important for your wallet and your peace of mind.

What’s the deal with…AI?

People who aren’t constantly online can miss some of the cultural conversation that happens within the internet’s strange hallowed halls. Think of this as your at-a-glance way to catch up. (And reach out if you have a topic you’d like to see covered here! I’m very much hoping this will be an interactive section.)

Artificial intelligence, or AI as it’s more commonly called, is everywhere. It’s in your internet searches, your phone, your social media—interacting with you and your life whether you want it there or not.

AI actually spans a huge range of systems, many of which were already integral to our tech experiences long before it was in every headline. However, the type of AI I want to touch on today is what’s called generative AI. Basically, things like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Midjourney, and more. For many, these have become a silly way to pass the time, an assistant of sorts, or even a fundamental part of how they communicate.

However, the more integrated generative AI becomes with our everyday lives, the more important it is to understand what these tools actually are, how they came to be, and the consequences of using them. I know we’re all busy, so I won’t dive too deep into everything, but I do want to share the highlights:

• Making Things Up: Generative AI is literally programmed to give you the answer you want to hear. This means that it will sacrifice facts in favor of making up a nice sounding (and entirely incorrect) answer. Many call these “AI hallucinations,” and they can have massive real world consequences. They encourage people to buckle down on their biases and spread misinformation. Even something as simple as a list of recommended books can be wildly wrong in AI’s hands, as a paper in Chicago learned the hard way when the AI made up titles, authors, and book summaries.

• Negative Environmental Impacts: It’s estimated that generative AI uses five to ten times more energy than a simple search engine like Google. The data centers required to power generative AI require immense amounts of electricity and water, and produce electronic hazardous waste.

• Ethical Impacts: According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, AI lacks accountability and data privacy. It poses cybersecurity concerns, creates unsafe systems, and promotes unintentional bias.

• Built on Stolen Work: Though every generative AI system works and is trained differently, many are trained from stolen creative work. The legal consequences of this are still playing out, but the impact is already being felt within the creative world. Artists and writers have lost income, have been told to change their style to avoid being mistaken for AI, and more.

One Way You Can Help Someone Today

If you live in the U.S. and don’t know what’s going on with ICE right now, it’s time to catch up. If you’re not sure where to start, dive into what’s happening with Kilmar Ábrego García, Mohsen Mahdawi, “Alligator Alcatraz”, and the Los Angeles protests.

But hang on—reading the news doesn’t count as helping someone. It’s important to take that next step. Consider ways that you can help keep your community safe.

For iPhone users, there’s an app called ICEBlock that you can download to report sightings of ICE in your area. The app also sends notifications of ICE activity nearby so that you and those you care about can avoid them. Though it’s only available to Apple users because of the way Android handles privacy, it’s not the only way to help.

You can also reach out to your local representatives to ask them how they’re planning to protect their community. Make a plan with trusted neighbors for what you’ll do if ICE shows up in your neighborhood. Stay vigilant, and do what you can to keep others (and yourself) safe.

Recommending…

I’ve heard this book mentioned by friends, parents of friends, family, and even my therapist. It’s having quite the moment considering it’s actually several years old. Even so, I did find a lot to learn from the book about quite a few members of my family (and, I suppose, maybe even myself).

You can check it out at your local library, or find it at a local bookstore through Bookshop (link below).

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal From Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson

I want to hear from you! Have you heard a term going around that you’d like to know the meaning of? Do you wish you knew more about something I’ve mentioned here? Send me an email, and remember, there are no silly questions. 

Anna Wenner is a writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times’ Wirecutter, SUCCESS Magazine, Business Insider, USA Today’s Reviewed, Lovepop, Hallmark, and more. You can learn more about her at her website.