A-I---AI JA!

It’s obvious that AI has infiltrated our creative pursuits.

Everything from IG Reels to TikToks, podcasts to blog posts, carries the telltale signs of machine input: the em dash (—), the overuse of dividing lines, the endless “three examples” format, and the pervasiveness of words like delve and curated.

As a regular writer of editorials and flash fiction, I sometimes turn to AI as an editing and proofreading tool, since these services can be rather pricey for a teacher. But I began to notice the patterns it tried to sneak into my work... formulaic turns of phrase, tidy structures that smoothed out my quirks, robbing my musings of personality and soul. Perfection is performative after all.

So, dear reader, forgive my slip-ups and my ramblings, these are not flaws, they’re proof that I’m human, not a robot.

And maybe that’s the point. If AI really does start replacing jobs, what happens to a culture so fixated on tech & productivity? Will this shift finally validate and compensate for our creativity and ingenuity? Do we witness a rebirth of creative pursuits, a Renaissance for a new era? Or do we end up even more reliant on tech, churning out carbon copies instead of original ideas?

This “fast food” age of instant gratification, dopamine hits, likes, and affirmations... aargh! Can we unplug from the matrix and return to grassroots ingenuity? Challenge me with blank slates and lined paper that allow us to explore our individuality; to celebrate the weirdness we’ve been masking all these years? Yes, Susan, I doodle, I scribble quotes that only make sense to me, I hum loudly while I work. My best chants are in Arabic on the yoga mat, where nirvana has never tasted more exotic. Imagine a world where quirks aren’t discouraged but celebrated.

And while we’re at it, can we start taxing bots that land on our pages stealing data? We share ideas freely with others online, but nothing’s really free, right? And writing is so often born out of struggle that we imagined the catharsis was the pay-off. The old expression of “a struggling artist” needs to be re-evaluated in an era where creativity is valued.

We'll leave the repetitive, unimaginative, and unoriginal tasks to AI. Yes, you're fast, but without our input? 

You can't compare.

We are the OGs! Imagine the innovation and creation that will emerge once we are released from the matrix. It is in the slow, inconvenient truths, the flaws and slip-ups that our ultimate brilliance will bloom, finally allowing us the time to explore the very essence of what makes us human. 

And that is something AI will be able to mimic, but never master.