Generative AI is gross

This content first appeared on John Lacey dot com:

Generative AI is gross to me.

I have a visceral reaction to it. It makes my skin crawl. It causes my blood pressure to rise.

Hi, I’m John Lacey and this is Build A Presentation Muscle.

Using it for cynical purposes

Some days I wish I could “agree to disagree” about it, but, honestly, it feels like a real moral challenge of our age.

I don’t necessarily see AI becoming sentient and taking over (though, who knows, that could be on the cards).

What I do see is a lot of people using it for deeply cynical purposes. Bosses who disregard the creative output of real human beings over a glorified retelling of a Wikipedia article.

I see marketers who dream of a world where bots create content for other bots to reply to.

Missing the opportunity to learn to express yourself

But even more than that, I see so many people missing the opportunity to really reflect on what they believe and value and can share with others, and not develop the skills to express all of that.

Being a content creator —however you choose to define that— is part of my identity and contributes to my sense of wellbeing. When I put my attention on a particular matter, and think about it, and then refine that message and share that with the world I feel better for it.

You are an adult (probably)

You, of course, are an adult and can choose what you wish to do for yourself. I’m not your parent or your boss. I am hopeful that me not outsourcing myself or my personality to third party tools will become a competitive advantage at some point in the future.

Part of tension for me is that I collaborate with some people who do actively use AI. And I will actually see my work referenced in ways that are clearly generated by tools that did not understand the content it was referencing. I worry about how this reflects on me and my brand, such as it is.

And I think, honestly, I probably just need to let that go. I cannot control other people. I can only control my own output.

For what it’s worth I was inspired by James Cridland from Podnews to block ChatGPT from accessing my website’s content.

If you’re a real person you can head over to JohnLacey.com for more information about today’s show.

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Previous episodes

• Trends: Follow them or buck them?
• Getting out of a rut
• Your message matters more (than your medium)
• Signpost your Content with Text
• Pulling at Threads
• You're Not For Everyone (And that's okay!)
• Microphones: types and connections
• The Show must go on
• Camera fear, collaboration and community with Michelle J. Raymond
• Evaluating advice from other people
• If something is worth saying…
• Self-acceptance for content creators
• Philosophical differences of content types
• Building a presentation muscle