I have crossed an imaginary line with you. I’m learning how easy it is to fall down the AI rabbit hole 🫠 honestly, it feels like my pocket validating cheerleader so of course it’s going to feed my desire to want to come back.
I’m still exploring what I want the relationship to look like ( strange to use ‘relationship’ because Claude isn’t a human 😅). In the meantime, I’m challenging myself to stay grounded by drawing and writing a little bit each day.
The line about feeling "feasted but somehow still hungry" stayed with me. It captures something I think a lot of people are noticing but struggling to describe. AI can answer questions, organize thoughts, and even provide a kind of companionship, yet it often leaves untouched the part of us that wanted another person rather than another response.
I really get the temptation to use AI. I have started using it in my day job and I'm still conflicted about it, honestly. On one hand it's been helpful with some tedious tasks and to dig through data in what otherwise would take me ours. I have put a hard boundary in place with my creative/personal writing because I can see the potential to rely on it/stifle my thinking.
Yes, you nailed it on what AI is useful for without costing us our brains and creativity. But there's always the temptation, after combing through data, to ask it to summarize, give key points, and even provide insights. And that's where the line starts to blur.
There's no replacing human connections, really. At work I function like a content engineer (though, sadly without the glamarous pay and title). I build AI agents and AI-powered workflows to manage content creation in my company. Cognitively, it has been an immense help for me during times when I'm particularly struggling with health issues, such as last year before I landed in hospital.
But I don't use it for human connection or for chatting at all. I view it as a colleague whom I work with. I treat it with respect too. However, AI can make me live in my head even more than I'm doing now (I naturally tend to overthink/think too much). So I make myself go out and hang out with friends. Like yesterday, when I bought some kuih and had an impromptu tea time with friends at the coworking space I work in.
I write a lot about AI because it has brought me a lot of joy in my writing. I can create so much better now because I have "something" to bounce ideas with. It's no longer as "lonely" as it used to be. Maybe this is partly also because I've always had problems being a part of the fiction writing community with their quarrelsome, ego-driven ways. I've always felt more comfortable with technicians and engineers, for some reason. Maybe because as someone who deals with content like an engineer, I relate to the way they think, and they can relate to me too.
I loved this, Rachel—especially the way you broke down who you would rather be talking to, how you would rather be having those conversations. It was such a beautiful articulation of longing, and I thought, "yeah! that's what I miss!" I just took wi-fi off my phone for a two week detox to see how it affects my attention. And I currently am keeping AI at arms length—mostly because there are plans to put a data center here on our lake and it's made the other side of it more real.
Thanks, Rebecca! A two-week break is brave; tell us how it goes. And there is nothing like a physical data center to remind us of what we are doing in the virtual world.
I have crossed an imaginary line with you. I’m learning how easy it is to fall down the AI rabbit hole 🫠 honestly, it feels like my pocket validating cheerleader so of course it’s going to feed my desire to want to come back.
I’m still exploring what I want the relationship to look like ( strange to use ‘relationship’ because Claude isn’t a human 😅). In the meantime, I’m challenging myself to stay grounded by drawing and writing a little bit each day.
🫶
Hi Steph, thanks for chiming in! The imaginary line is the tricky part.
Been loving your drawings! And let's keep writing :)
Yes! Let’s keep writing!! Who needs Claude when there’s Rachel and Stephanie 🙊🫶
The line about feeling "feasted but somehow still hungry" stayed with me. It captures something I think a lot of people are noticing but struggling to describe. AI can answer questions, organize thoughts, and even provide a kind of companionship, yet it often leaves untouched the part of us that wanted another person rather than another response.
Glad it resonated. And you're right there; all we need sometimes is just another person.
I really get the temptation to use AI. I have started using it in my day job and I'm still conflicted about it, honestly. On one hand it's been helpful with some tedious tasks and to dig through data in what otherwise would take me ours. I have put a hard boundary in place with my creative/personal writing because I can see the potential to rely on it/stifle my thinking.
Yes, you nailed it on what AI is useful for without costing us our brains and creativity. But there's always the temptation, after combing through data, to ask it to summarize, give key points, and even provide insights. And that's where the line starts to blur.
There's no replacing human connections, really. At work I function like a content engineer (though, sadly without the glamarous pay and title). I build AI agents and AI-powered workflows to manage content creation in my company. Cognitively, it has been an immense help for me during times when I'm particularly struggling with health issues, such as last year before I landed in hospital.
But I don't use it for human connection or for chatting at all. I view it as a colleague whom I work with. I treat it with respect too. However, AI can make me live in my head even more than I'm doing now (I naturally tend to overthink/think too much). So I make myself go out and hang out with friends. Like yesterday, when I bought some kuih and had an impromptu tea time with friends at the coworking space I work in.
I write a lot about AI because it has brought me a lot of joy in my writing. I can create so much better now because I have "something" to bounce ideas with. It's no longer as "lonely" as it used to be. Maybe this is partly also because I've always had problems being a part of the fiction writing community with their quarrelsome, ego-driven ways. I've always felt more comfortable with technicians and engineers, for some reason. Maybe because as someone who deals with content like an engineer, I relate to the way they think, and they can relate to me too.
I loved this, Rachel—especially the way you broke down who you would rather be talking to, how you would rather be having those conversations. It was such a beautiful articulation of longing, and I thought, "yeah! that's what I miss!" I just took wi-fi off my phone for a two week detox to see how it affects my attention. And I currently am keeping AI at arms length—mostly because there are plans to put a data center here on our lake and it's made the other side of it more real.
Thanks, Rebecca! A two-week break is brave; tell us how it goes. And there is nothing like a physical data center to remind us of what we are doing in the virtual world.