When ChatGPT and her friends first came out, we watched them with amusement and curiosity. As the months rolled by, however, some of the excitement ebbed away, and debates about the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on jobs took over boardroom and dinner table conversations.
I consider myself a reasonably early adopter of this new technology and quickly found ways to leverage ChatGPT. It was writing my mails, optimising travel plans, and suggesting recipes. I was also dabbling with its potential at my job as an HR professional.
Over time, however, I started feeling uneasy. There were news of people writing books using AI and creating extremely believable images and videos.
As someone who enjoys writing, blogging, and creating content for social media, I suddenly saw no relevance for my skills. Anyone could now write a three-page travelogue on Morocco or an intriguing short story about crows.
I found myself gripped by writer’s block. GenAI was striking at one of the last bastions of humanity — creativity.
I fretted over this for months, leaving a precious list of story ideas untouched. Then one day, I grudgingly sat down to chronicle a trip from July 2023. As the words flowed, it dawned on me that it is not a competitive race.
I write for my thoughts to find a home, to give life to a character living inside my head, and to harvest ripe plot points that I see unfolding in daily life. I wake up at 4 a.m. for the joy of seeing the first rays of the sun light up the lotus pond at Angkor Wat. I take a picture of that experience to record my story, for me to look back on it, as a memory of an experience.
I am learning to pursue creativity for its own sake, not for recognition or accolades. In that pursuit perhaps I will learn to value this AId (pun intended). AI can eliminate annoying speed bumps like finding the right synonym. It can assist in fact-checking to create more authentic and accurate writing. Ask, and it will deliver. The commonly found trees in Mysuru that should grow in your main character’s backyard? Sure. The size of Lithuania versus Maharashtra to write an Instagram caption? Coming right up. This will leave you with the time and space to do the creative heavy-lifting.
There are always new ways of doing things, that, with time, begin to feel natural and inherent. Our forefathers made a successful transition from quills to pens, from typewriters to keyboards. After all adapting too is a bastion of humanity!
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