I promise I am not a robot

I have basically avoided saying anything publicly about AI for the past few years. 

This has been intentional. Because I find the conversation, frankly, kind of annoying.

We’ve all seen hot takes on both ends of the spectrum. We’ve all seen brands fumble their way through statements on AI. (The NaNoWriMo disaster comes to mind.) 

I know some writers who believe using AI tools at all is unethical, an egregious sin. And I know some writers who joyfully use ChatGPT and other tools in their regular writing process. 

I’ve been all over the map with the AI issue:

• I started out swearing I would never use it in my writing process.

• I later changed my mind and found it was a great tool for brainstorming and outlining.

• Then, I quit cold turkey due to environmental concerns.

• After some investigation, I realized my personal ChatGPT use is not single-handedly destroying the planet, and the energy consumption associated with my search queries is negligible.

Now, ChatGPT plays a small role in my writing process. I use it for things like research, outlining, and brainstorming. I always fact-check it. I never copy-and-paste from it. It’s a tool — one of many I use when I write. 

I used to worry about whether this reflected poorly on me as a writer, but I’m not really worried about that anymore. I’m not being naive or arrogant when I say large language models like ChatGPT cannot do what I do. They can spit out content — even halfway decent content, sometimes — but creativity and critical thinking and strategy? That’s all me, baby. 

This also relates to all the hand-wringing about whether ChatGPT will replace writers. I know some organizations have laid off in-house staff and ended relationships with freelancers in hopes of using ChatGPT to save money on writing.

But I also know that has backfired.

And I am convinced there will always be work out there for skilled human writers. (Although the freelance writer field is feeling fairly saturated lately, but that's a different topic for a different day.)

“AI” encompasses so many technologies and applications — some exciting, some a bit scary. Even in this specific use case, there are many valid concerns related to dubious AI scraping practices, biases, plagiarism, privacy, and creative integrity. If I had to give advice on the matter, it would be this:

• Be cautious.

• Be curious.

• Be committed to using the tools at our disposal to make the world better and fairer.

Ultimately, I think I’m annoyed about this topic because I think robots are a bit boring. I love humanity and creativity and art and connection and imagination too much to get riled up about freaking robots. 🙄

But it seems they’re here to stay, so I’m making my begrudging peace.

I welcome your hot takes and rebuttals — just hit reply.

See you next week,

Kara

Kara Detwiller is a writer based in small-town Saskatchewan. She specializes in long-form content writing for enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and manufacturing clients. She is also working on her first novel, among other creative pursuits. To connect, reply to this email or find Kara on LinkedIn or Bluesky. To support her work on Wishful Working, share this email with someone or buy her a “coffee.”

Why Wishful Working? I write this newsletter because I want to see more people enjoy a life not centered around work. For some, the path to freedom and flexibility is through self-employment, but we also need to challenge cultural norms and champion healthier working conditions and work/life balance for all types of workers.