Digital Tools

…And I Don’t Know How to Feel About AI

I just asked Gemini to write a bio for children’s author Tory Christie, and this is what I got:

“Tory Christie is an American children's author known for writing fun and imaginative stories. Her books often feature animals, magic, and adventure, which she uses to teach kids important lessons about friendship, kindness, and bravery. 🐾”

It came complete with the bold text and paw print emoji. It’s a little vague and … well, wrong.

But at least it is better than what I got from ChatGPT, which I won’t bother repeating here because I don’t want to perpetuate the misinformation about my education and spicy novels.

When I was teaching project management, one of the most frequently asked questions was, what program do you recommend for project management? My response was usually along the lines of, “Whatever program you will use.” Recommending a digital project management system was kind of iffy, because they are always changing and we have new tools every day.

To plan a basic project, you can get by with a pencil and a pad of paper or a spreadsheet. Besides, working things through on paper is a good exercise to help you really understand the process or project. It helps you understand what’s inside the “black box” of a computer program.

Once you learn the basics of project management, and your projects become more complex, digital tools can be helpful.

But now that I am writing more and project-managing less, I am seeing a growing interest in using AI or digital tools to write—whether it is a Substack, social media posts, or an 80,000-word novel. And opinions—and fear—of AI are popping up all over the place.

I don’t want to be afraid of AI. I feel like I should understand AI and what it can be used for. So, I play around with Gemini, ChatGPT, Quickwrite, and a few others.

But just like in project management, starting out with a pencil and a pad of paper, away from the computer and internet, is not only helpful but also more peaceful. I like to hash out my ideas and really have a good idea of what I want to write about before my “research” gets in the way and starts sending me in a different direction.

I am told AI can be very useful for getting more marketing emails out there and posting regular social media content. But it somehow feels wrong for a writer to off-load writing tasks.

Besides, I like writing. I want to give away tasks I don’t like (pulling weeds and shopping, for example). Just for fun, here is an AI generated photo of “a computer pulling weeds”:

a computer pulling weeds

All this to say that I just don’t know how I feel about AI. It can be fun to see what it comes up with. But, as Lincoln Michel’s Substack advises, I want to create art and not add to the slop that is out there. So, I will continue to enjoy writing—not spicy novels—but some fun and imaginative science books for kids. And maybe include a few paw print emojis. 🐾 🐾 🐾