I won't lie.
As someone who dabbles in the creative and run a creative school for kids, I’m worried about AI replacing me.
AI is smarter than me by a hundred-fold. It can brainstorm ideas, dig out research papers, write content and stories within seconds of being prompted. There’s no way I can outpace something that was built to replace the human brain.
So where does that leave me? Where does Gosh! Kids, the creative art school I co-run with Gladys, stand among the giants? Is it still relevant to write stories with a pen or a keyboard?
More importantly, where does it leave you?
Rationalising my feelings
One of my roles at Gosh! Kids is to write for the newsletter / blog that goes out to about 300 parents every Saturday. 95% of these parents share one similarity: they’re on a quest to harness the most powerful force in the universe within their children, human creativity.
Why is human creativity of utmost importance? Maybe because it literally fuels every endeavour we undertake - professional or personal. You need creativity to run your life. Because they say, AI can replace the human brain.
It’s hard to wrap our heads around AI, but Tim Urban explains this phenomenon in his ultra-crazy post The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence (if you an ounce of time, read it).
Urban opens with a simple question to his readers:
What does it feel like to stand here?
It seems like a pretty intense place to be standing—but then you have to remember something about what it’s like to stand on a time graph: you can’t see what’s to your right. So here’s how it actually feels to stand there:
Which probably feels pretty normal.
Yes - normal. That’s how I’m feeling now, even if there’s a chance that tomorrow I’ll be told by Siri that I’m unworthy.
Cash is king!
When my family and I moved to Japan for the entire 2022, I had to get used to cash as the preferred mode of payment.
This came to me as a surprise. Wasn’t Japan supposed to be a leader in technology and a champion of efficiency? Turns out, like many things, I was wrong - the average Japanese person lived by the mantra cash is king.
It’s not uncommon to see someone pull out a wad of bills to pay for their groceries, or exchange a Macbook Pro with $3000 worth of cold-hard cash. Digitalisation is god’s gift to mankind, yet many there prefer to ditch the credit card for the old-school. They don’t care about convenience. The dusty old smell of a thousand ¥ bill emitts an aroma of security.
Newsflash: personal preferences are still prevalent. There will always be someone who prefers this to that. New is not always better and the old is not always forgotten.
That is why whenever I read about how AI is going to take over the world and relinquish creatives, business owners, executives (i.e. me, you), I wonder to myself - can’t we all live in harmony?
How do you choose?
The biggest problem I have running Gosh! Kids is finding mentors who can resonate with us.
They must carry the following: a belief in children, an eye for what is beautiful, experience in the arts, and an energy level that is high and beyond that of the children. Choosing the right individual for the right place, for the right time and have the tenacity to push the mission forward is probably the most challenging thing I’m experiencing.
It’s one thing to create. It’s another to choose. But when you choose correctly, you strike gold.
So, here's the thing - your preferred mode of payment and who you hire share some similarities.
For one, your actions are propelled by what gives you comfort. You could tell from an instant whether this person is the right fit for your company. Maybe you avoid digital payments because you were brought up in a culture that prioritises the safe method. “Cash is king” didn’t come from nowhere. A sense of security is a sense of comfort.
Either way, you feel an instant connection with your choices. And that is something innately human.
Vincent van who?
Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime and was an unknown artist while he was alive. In 1890, after mental issues plagued his mind and caused him to pull a gun to his head, Van Gogh’s sister-in-law began promoting his work, which were then recognised by the upper ranks of society.
Art critics and collectors connected with Van Gogh’s art. His work sparked an emotion within them. Amongst the thousands of artists prying for attention, somehow they knew Van Gogh's were the one.
Starry Night wasn't chosen by the noblemen. It chose them.
Hence, this is the biggest challenge of any creator - to find the sweet spot between two overlapping circles. A place where the creator finds satisfaction, and one where it brings the audience joy. Two whole worlds, converged into one.
And because of the existence of an intersection, AI will have a hard time replacing what humans possessed throughout civilisation:
Discernment & choice.
Take for instance this post made by Zain Kahn about how AI will replace photography:
When I came across this post, I felt something wasn’t right. So I responded:
ChatGPT is good, but it isn’t that good. You've probably seen news about ChatGPT passing high-level examinations. And yet we see it making simple mistakes related to geography:
The correct answer is Honduras.
Too bad ChatGPT couldn't discern it was wrong. Gave it a little twist by adding "that isn't Mexico" and it came crashing down.
But the issue isn't about the incorrect answers. It's how much humans are offloading their brain toward an external source (as with the case for ChatGPT), when what we should be doing is to train our brain to reach a new pinnacle with the help of AI. Are we giving it permission to redefine human creative expression?
Don't be mistaken. ChatGPT is one of the best inventions since the iPhone. Using it is like knowing how to use excel to do arithmetic for you is more important than knowing how to do the math by hand. I use it for my work every other day. It's a tool for everyone, young or old.
But when it comes to human creativity and AI, where will the line be drawn?
Two brains, one human.
A photographer can use his work to connect with his audiences by capturing the beauty of the world we live in. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
A holocaust survivor can sit by the balcony and pen down his experiences during the war and move you with his story of survival. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
A chef can create new dishes that taste good and are visually stunning. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
And it definitely cannot cook.
I choose to use cash because it gives me comfort, and I'll definitely choose this candidate to represent my company because I believe she is the one. AI can't decide for me, because it isn't me. An AI language model could help you augment your work or reorganise your chaotic mind, but it should never be one that replaces how you lead your life.
Therefore, whatever is happening in the world, focus on living one that defines you as human, led by principles of:
1) Discernment - to differentiate right from wrong, black from white, and truth from lies.
2) Choice - to decide based on how you want it, when you want it and why you want it.
It’s dangerous to think that with all the hype around AI, we can stop being better, creative humans. If AI-generated content raises the floor, do yourself a favour by raising your ceiling.
If you’re a business owner leading teams, what culture of creativity are you breeding? If you’re an executive, how far are you willing to leverage on AI to do the work for you? If you’re a writer, photographer or creator of any sort, don’t fear AI. Ask yourself: how can technology springboard you to higher success?
There can be an unlimited amount of brains, but there will only be one human.
Be well,
MBT
A Personal Fun-Fact From Me:
As with all my newsletters, nothing about this edition was written by ChatGPT. Nothing. You can take my word for it. I only use ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas or formulate my thought-process. All that you've read so far are either typed out in Notion or written on hand by a human being. Of course, hours of research were done prior.
Btw, I tried prompting ChatGPT to write in my style by feeding it an example of my past writings. It was intelligent enough to do so, but it felt too.... artificial, which is also why I feel that AI won't relinquish the need for real writers, for now :)
So why am I explaining myself?
Because while people rave about ChatGPT being the next big thing, I feel no connection to it. Yes, it can super-speed all the menial tasks and save me hours, but I don't trust it to write my stories or generate Instagram captions that can resonate with other human beings.
There are only certain things I can do, and that's what makes us who we are.
Writing Tip
✔️ Anaphora
Anaphora is when you begin consecutive sentences with the same word or phrase. It’s one of my favourite techniques, so much that I use it in almost all my newsletters. And if you know it already, you’ll see it in all my writings. For instance:
A photographer can use his work to connect with his audiences by capturing the beauty of the world we live in. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
A holocaust survivor can sit by the balcony and pen down his experiences during the war and move you with his story of survival. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
A chef can create new dishes that taste good and are visually stunning. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
It ends up forming a predictable, rhythmic pattern where you can guess the format but not the essence. That, my friends, is one way you can bring your readers on a journey of discovering what’s ahead, slowly revealing information to reinforce your overall point.
Photography Tip
✔️ Behold!
I call this one behold because the photo gives off an invisible saying that goes something like this:
Behold! What’s in front of you is majestic. You’re in awe. Be mesmerized. Get emotional now!
This technique is characterized by the subject standing in the presence of something large or powerful, revealing the contrast.
One example:
Subject 1: tiny man
Subject 2: ginormous, glorious, majestic volcano.
Outcome: the contrast between man vs nature shows the vastness of what’s ahead.
Best circumstances to use Behold!: in places to depict profound nature, supersized subjects, or unexpected moments - mountains, ocean, skyscrapers, destruction, life - emphasizing on the contrast between [subject 1] & [subject 2].
Another example from one of my favourite films and favourite cinematic in cinema:
Subject 1: pilot
Subject 2: burning plane
Outcome: the contrast between pilot vs burning plane portrays an emotion of defeat, helplessness and destruction.