I've been reflecting a bit on the use of AI and how it relates to my writing.
I've always been comfortable working and thinking with computers. From a young age I was fascinated by the possibilities of what I could make and experience with these amazing tools. They've formed a big part of my life, professionally and personally.
I've felt very comfortable embracing the possibilities of LLMs and the opportunities they bring. In recent months, I've felt swathes of energy and excitement around how generative AI can help me bring my ideas to fruition in a fraction of the speed I'm used to.
However, letting the models write for me is throwing up something different.
I don't feel much satisfaction around letting AI gather my thoughts up and reflect them back at me. There's something much more useful about the process of being responsible for sifting through my thoughts and turning them into prose for myself. You can't take shortcuts if you want to figure out what you really think.
Sure, it's a little frustrating that sometimes my prose kind of sucks. That the ideas come out a little half-baked or mixed up.
But I've decided that's better and far preferable to giving over control and letting the AI massage fragments of my ideas into glossy exteriors I can't really claim as my own.
This morning, during morning pages, I decided I wanted to set this out as a rule and guiding principle that I intend to hold myself accountable to. So here it is:
I'll use AI to proofread and correct spelling and obvious errors. That's all I'm going to relinquish. So the writing I share here is going to be my own, and is going to stay that way. That means the ideas are going to come out higgledy-piggledy and will simply be a reflection of my thoughts, process and attempts to figure things out. That feels like what I want, because it's more useful to me, and it stops me risking the loss of something which feels tough, but precious: having to work things out for myself!