The Blogs: My Love/Hate Relationship with AI

Writer Patrick O Brien explains that AI will not take over the world, at least not as it is depicted in the movies. In our history, technological innovations always faced skepticism and fear regarding their impact on people’s jobs.

Take the Industrial Revolution for example. The inventions in machinery and factory systems in the 18th and 19th centuries caused concern over job loss among manual labors. But, that revolution also marked the birth of new job categories and a significant increase in productivity and economic growth. Industries like manufacturing, engineering, and transportation flourished, creating millions of new jobs and leading to a significant improvement in our living standards. Yes, Technology can do a lot and computers are more powerful than humans when solving complicated equations, but more powerful does not mean there’s the capability to show empathy, compassion and emotion when communicating.

Let’s be frank, I am of a certain age where many consider me and others to be ‘old school’ or ‘set in our ways’, not open to the world of tech advances. It’s not about being ‘old-school’ it’s about clarity. For me, writing things out forces me to slow down and think critically about what I am trying to accomplish. In a world where everything moves so fast, taking a step back and simplifying things makes me feel more grounded.

AI is not going to replace humans, but humans with AI are going to replace humans without AI. For instance, I take notes to keep track of key quotes and major talking points, questions to ask and things to follow up. At my desk, I tend to type things. Having notes makes it much quicker and easier to run through the salient points. Almost weekly, I am asked about AIs role in replacing journalists, writers and content creators, I am not anti-AI but believe AI has a role to play in modern journalism but one of support, not substitution.

To me there’s something satisfying about crossing out bad ideas on paper. It’s cathartic and while ChatGPT is a total lifesaver there’s something about the simplicity of pen and paper that still helps me cut through the noise. It’s like the ultimate balance, combining the mental clarity of paper with the genius of ChatGPT. It’s the best of both worlds.

AI will never replace the trust journalists build with their sources, the judgments they use in editing sensitive material, in modern life stories, feeling though is everything. While relying on AI might seems to simplify things, true originality rarely springs from ease. The more one depends on artificial assistance, the more one risks dulling their own innate creative abilities. If you find yourself using artificial intelligence to learn about nature, the universe, or subjects that spark your curiosity, that is quite commendable, as AI such as ChatGPT or DeepSeek can indeed provide valuable information. However, when it comes to learning itself, the act of writing, or anything that contributes to success in your academic life, it is my firm belief that one should certainly refrain from relying solely on artificial intelligence.

In reality, AI text generation is a tool. A powerful, flexible tool, but still a tool. It can generate a bunch of mostly pretty good text very quickly. But it doesn’t really understand what it’s doing, it has no inner model of reality so it needs a certain amount of human supervision.

In saying that anyone that tells you AI won’t be able to do the kinds of creative things humans can do, does not understand the technology. Right now. No way, but AI is improving at an exponential rate. People generally don’t understand exponential growth/change. AI will just be another tool in a writers kit to use when searching for inspiration or when struggling with certain elements of their story, style, theme, plot, etc. There will come a point where it is basically impossible to tell if something was written by a human or by an AI masquerading as human. As I already said, this reality is not here yet.

AI can rearrange sentences and correct punctuation, but it can’t feel the tension in a boardroom when a decision is read. It won’t understand the emotions behind war torn grief after a tragic loss of lives . Those are the things that give stories their soul, and no algorithm can replicate that. It takes a human to walk into those moments, to ask sensitive questions, and to capture the heartbeat of real life.

I am regularly told AI is coming for my job. I am so into doing my research, so the idea that a tool like that could make up facts or fabricate footnotes, and slyly, blithely pop them into texts would cause me waking nightmares if I relied on it, which of course I don’t!