STAYING REAL, STAYING HUMAN, IN AN AI WORLD.

Before I begin to enter words onto this blank page, a prompt: do I want Co-Pilot to help me? Or, and here’s an utterly inappropriate suggestion, do I want to write an article about Yellowstone? No, actually. Well maybe… But perhaps given AI and its infinite understanding and ability to be a resource with infinite knowledge, I could. I mean isn’t that what Artificial Intelligence might be good for: replacing actual experience and knowledge with the generative?  But then, in a world where the ownership of one’s creation doesn’t seem to matter, should one care?  Of course, one should…? After all the flaw is right there, in the name: artificial.

Along with other forms of technology that appeared over the past decades,  AI is positioned as being just another tool - something that assists us. And yet, unlike other tools that we humans have used ( quills, pens, typewriters, computers, the internet itself),  it’s generative - it can create its own material and perhaps own truths. It can replicate with uncanny (yet often flawed) proficiency.  It can relentlessly borrow, copy and even “steal” from what already exists to author and create its own stories, art, compositions - you name it. Still while being used as a tool, it can help enable research, perfect our prose, correct our grammar (or even screw it up). On the other hand, like the Yellowstone suggestion,  it can be obtrusive, butting in where it’s not wanted. The actor, Emma Thompson on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert declared in a conversation about AI and writing, that she initially writes her thoughts longhand, before translating them to Word where, to her irritation and annoyance the prompt inevitably appears if they can help her write better. Like many, her response is **** no!

So is AI a Blessing or a Beast?  And if a beast, doesn’t it need to be tamed. (Yes!)  But perhaps what’s needed is another “b”. Balance. Sure we can utilize AI - many of us in our day to day lives already do - you just need to ask a question of Google, sign in to your daily Duolingo lesson, or get a grammar check, to see AI in action, but we also need to find that space that is AI free, and all about being human.

This can mean consciously distancing yourself from the more disruptive influences of AI and keeping “real”. Your yoga practice, for instance, can bring you back to the importance of calm and mindfulness in a world where the artificially generated is rapidly distorting what’s truly real, and what’s not. Exploring activities that speak to us being human rather than scrolling through bot-generated posts, can also help us find balance in an increasingly robotic and inauthentic world. Handwork, visual artistry, daily or weekly journaling, writing from the heart, returns you to the baseline of what we as spiritual beings are and where we grow and thrive. This thrust towards balance is reflected in the gatherings and meet ups taking place in our cities, towns and villages that provide a forum for human (not artificial) creation and connection - the pottery class, meditation circle, or the neighbourhood knit and sip group, say, that bring together two authentically human experiences - making and mingling.  As for the mistakes (and dropped stitches) we make and correct along the way…Well, we’re only human.