Anca Dunavete

There’s been a lot of fuss recently about a study claiming that humans will turn into zombies by the year 2100. Also, our pets will turn into carnivorous plants and eat us (don’t worry, we won’t feel a thing and they won’t know it’s us! We’ll all be zombies, remember?).

And don’t even get me started on what will happen to our car keys. Rumour – I mean, study – has it that they’ll develop new skills, such as walking to the car on their own and thinking critically to decide where they want to go based on… TripAdvisor reviews!

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? Well, it’s because it is. But it sure was fun to come up with that nonsense :)

Just as there is no credible study to support such claims, the idea that AI will replace writers and make us redundant is also a bit of a stretch of the imagination (but in the wrong direction! This one makes us sad! Why are we doing this to ourselves?).

Sure, AI is impressive. It helps create content with unprecedented speed and efficiency, and we all love & hate it for that. Chat GPT is a much better employee than I ever was! But let’s not forget what makes creating truly impactful: the human touch.

I’m convinced that, when strategically integrated into our creative processes, AI has the potential to enhance our creativity and keep us in the zone.

Think of AI as your brainstorming buddy, especially when you’re working alone and need fresh perspectives – similar to collaborating with other creatives, which, let’s face it, we rarely do. (Why is that? Who came up with the lone creative wolf? I don’t like it!)

I see AI as a tool to help me explore my creative potential and like to spend time experimenting with different tools to see what works (and what drives me crazy, like making fake Pixar characters out of our dogs…. scary stuff). In this way, the process itself becomes a creative act. 🎨

Personally, I can say that AI has made me a faster writer and editor. But that’s only because I was already a (decent? great? excellent? WHAT SHOULD I USE?) writer and editor before.

You still need to know if the copy captures your client’s voice, how to edit the hell out of it, and whether it actually says something. If you’re young, you should improve your skills first. If you jump into AI too early, you run the risk of diluting your writing skills before you’ve even had a chance to discover your own voice.

(If you’re thinking, ‘Wait a minute, I have years of experience, but I still haven’t discovered my voice!’, relax. Your voice changes quite a bit over time. I know mine has changed, and that’s completely normal. But I can still write things from scratch and think, ‘Okay, that definitely sounds like me… today, anyway.’).

I can’t give advice on dealing with AI because it’s all still pretty new and I’m as concerned about it as any other writer out there. But I’d still suggest looking at it as a tool that speeds things up for us as writers & creators, not as a replacement for human connection and creativity. It can’t do that, so why bother?

Do you use AI? Are you worried that it could take over our planet? And most importantly, do you think we’ll all be zombies by 2100? DISCUSS!

Anca x