on Words, AI, and Creativity
The Tower of Noisy Confusion
⚠️⚠️⚠️ I’m going to get spiritual in this one. If you’re not spiritual, probably don’t read it.
I’ve done a few posts on my overall thoughts on AI:
And I’m starting to form a fairly strong opinion.
Now should I start with the end or the beginning? How about the beginning:
I believe the World was created… by a Creator.
I don’t believe that it evolved from a pile of dirt…
I also don’t believe that a pile of dirt will turn into an iPhone if only given enough billions of years.
I think that’s pretty stupid.
If you can turn a pile of dirt into an iPhone in a billion years… using entropy… more power to you!
And humans are a lot more complicated than iPhones.
Everything cool on Earth was created - bridges, trains, the automobile, Zoom, AI even…
And so yes, I believe the Earth and the sky and the planets and the billion galaxies - they were all created too.
We humans were created to be creators by the ultimate Creator.
Ok, so how did all this start?
It started with Words.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…
And God said, “Let there be light…”
And God said, “Let there be waters…”
And God said, “Let there be land…”
And God said, “Let there be plants…”
And God said, “Let there be humans…”
So you see, it all started with Words… by a Creator.
Not too many pages later, The Tower of Babel happened.
“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.”
They were using AI, all the creativity was toast. :)
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. And the Lord said “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
The earth was created with words, and then when all people had the same words, God decided to break it up. It was the first monopoly on “Words”.
Let me ask ChatGPT about this:
So there was 1 language and now there are 7,000.
I kind of feel like AI is a return to just one language. It has taken all the words across all the languages and made them accessible to everybody.
A modern-day “Tower of Babel” of sorts.
But we have a choice on how we use this new “1 language.”
And I think it comes down to how we value humans.
A couple weeks ago, I was chatting with someone, and they said, “Oh, I wrote a paper on that, let me send it to you.”
And I opened it up, and it was AI word vomit. 🤮
And then I realized that using AI and expecting someone to spend their time to read it… is a form of rude.
It’s a value exchange of sorts. I can prompt AI in 10 seconds and return enough words to keep a person busy for an hour.
But the words aren’t from a living soul, they’re Frankenstein’d together… by a robot.
Humans aren’t dumb either. Ultimately, we are each responsible on how we use our time, and I think generally, humans aren’t going to waste their time reading AI content or listening to AI robots talk to each other.
☝️I’m open to changing my mind on this though.
For any writer, marketer, artist, entrepreneur, I’d recommend picking up this book someday and chewing on it:
It’s got a lot of interesting thoughts about creativity. Especially about standing out - i.e. not using the same words as everybody else:
From page 98:
Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to.
The goal is not to fit in. If anything, it’s to amplify the differences, what doesn’t fit, the special characteristics unique to how you see the world.
Instead of sounding like others, value your own voice. Develop it. Cherish it.
…Communicate your singular perspective.
After all, isn’t this what makes us human? Not being perfect? Or robotic?
One creator I enjoy on Youtube is Peter McKinnon. And during the last eclipse, he took a photo:
Now AI could have produced loads of pictures like this with just a prompt. But he actually TOOK this picture - and there’s a video about it - and uh… it’s sold out:
There’d be no value in this picture if AI made it. And AI can.
But just because it can, does it mean you should?
And if you do, is it worth others’ time to look at it?
You don’t need AI to be realistic. Reality already exists!
Humans will listen to, communicate with, and be inspired by REAL humans.
The fake-ness, the rude-ness, the dishonesty… it’ll all still be there - but you have a choice!
Be a real human writing real words.
Or don’t.
I wrote this - me, Joe. Using real time, typing with my fingers, using my brain (I do have one - I saw it on an MRI).
If you choose to read this, that’s on you. :)
Hopefully it makes sense.
If not, well, I’ll keep trying.
Joe
P.S. Go write something. Create something. Be human.