Don’t Fear AI. Use It With Intention.
This blog, like all of our posts, is written by us. Not AI.
We use AI to brainstorm, find research, and to refine our writing and help clarify a point we're trying to make when we get 'stuck' while writing. But…the content all comes from us. We think that's why you (and others) actually read our stuff and tell us that you get value from it.
When we started the process to build Vienna Waits, we both had minimal exposure to tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT. We'd used them before, but had only dabbled.
Now we're using them daily as companions to help us advance the work that we're trying to do, and we know that we couldn't have built what we have (this quickly) without it.
All of this to say, we're fans of AI. But let's step back for a minute and take a look at the broader landscape.
ChatGPT burst on the scene at the end of 2022, and a small number of early adopters jumped on it as something they wanted to play with, explore, and put to use in some way. Many of us have someone around us like that, who saw the potential and jumped on it.
For the first little while, it was cool to play with and explore how the tool could generate creative and interesting content and tools. But it quickly moved from being something that we could play with to something that could truly drive a lot of value in our work and daily lives.
Fast-forward just over two years, and it is impossible to watch or read the news and not encounter articles dissecting the impact of AI in different areas of our lives, or encounter a digital tool that doesn't have some sort of 'AI feature' embedded within it (just think of how Apple or Google completes your sentences for you!).
The conversations we have with friends, family, members of our UNBLOCK Yourself program, and even our kids have started to dig into questions about what the impact will be from the growing use of AI for more and more of our daily activities. Studies reported in Time Magazine have cited how AI-reliance reduces cognitive function, and Harvard Business Review has released studies showing that heavy use of AI reduces motivation to even put our brains to work.
More concerning yet is how AI looks like it will impact the job market. Canadian companies like Shopify and OpenText are slowing hiring (almost entirely) while they work to build capacity for teams to use AI before hiring people. The jobs that most frequently get replaced by AI are those entry-level roles, which AI can quickly absorb, making starting accounting, legal, and computer engineering roles (among many others) increasingly challenging to find. Something that was unthinkable 10-15 years ago.
In spite of all of these challenges, we remain bullish on the potential that AI represents not just for us, but for the world. In a culture that’s obsessed with outcomes and end results, AI has given us a way to fast-forward to those results, eliminating the process by using AI as a substitute.
What this means is that outcomes themselves will begin to matter less. In time, the process will become more and more valuable.
Here's an example.
A simple way, unrelated to Vienna Waits, that we use AI in our daily lives has been to lean on ChatGPT to help with our weekly meal plans.
In a family of six with weeknight activities to shuffle kids (and ourselves) to, it is easy to get stuck in a rut. Punching a prompt into ChatGPT can lay out a whole series of new and easy ideas that make meals fun and exciting again.
This is all well and good…but in order to put delicious food on the table, we still need to have the skills to prepare the food, and the relationship with each other to know what types of options any of us would like.
The output—an exciting and different meal plan—has become so much more accessible. But what really matters is having the skills to execute on that plan, and prepare the food for our family to eat.
This is just one of countless examples. When an end outcome or 'thing' matters less itself, the value of the process to get there becomes more important. And SO MUCH lives in the process: hardship and resilience, fear and authenticity, and on it goes.
As the world becomes more automated and more 'artificial', authenticity and humanity will matter more and more. While jobs will be replaced and automated, and while there are challenging times ahead for many of us (and our kids!), we remain optimistic because the way to overcome the obstacles that AI will put in front of us will be to do the one thing it will never be able to do.
Be authentic. Be human.
The world already needs more of that, and now more than ever, the world will come to value that more and more.
If you're a hardcore AI user today, you're likely already seeing and feeling this. These tools have become ways for you to automate more, and create more space and time to bring your more authentic voice to the world.
If, on the other hand, you're AI 'apprehensive' and have been reluctant to dive into toying with these tools, we'd encourage you to try them out. Be intentional about how you use them, and you'll see that there really isn't much to be afraid of. They can be quite useful in getting things done.
But they can't replace the authentic you, and the human being that you are.
AI is our friend. We're intentional about how we use it, and believe that it can become a source of good in the world, unlocking more value for creators who excel in the PROCESS of building awesome things. Give it a try!