Ai …WHAT A TRIP
There’s a Lot of commentary about the use of Chat GPT or other forms of Ai in writing. Some harsh comments are being thrown — quite a few on LinkedIn. (And, for the record, that dash up there? That’s Mine, as is everything else in this brief share).
Some of you have been doing this for years. Maybe 20? …
I get it, really I do. I get it because I get tired of reading crap too. I suspect it’s a different perspective though. That’s how Perspectives go.
Countless times I’ve extended myself and what I got back were poetic crafted responses that were only meant to send me chasing my tail. It’s aggravating. But then, hey, I played along. Just like I am now.
Get Imogen’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Which brings me to my friend.
I’ve got a friend who writes now and again on this platform. She’s been through a lot. In fact, she’s still going through it. She’s An incredible woman whose strength and resilience I respect though I often wonder how she keeps going. She was involved with a man who lied to her for twenty+ years. We clicked when we met…affinity of shared experiences. Birds of a feather I guess. She’s much like me. In her case, she was stripped of her identity, her family, her life- (that dash is also mine) and her retirement. Everything that made her smile she was forced to leave behind. She had to leave -arrangements by the “organization” her ex was involved with. Or rather, they really gave her no choice. That organization I guess noted her resilience and figured she’d be fine. A**holes all.
I was chatting with her the other day and mentioned her posts have felt off to me; I asked if she’d been using Ai. She said this to me: “when you pour your heart into something and spend the time to write the real words and nothing comes back, why spend the time and energy? I don’t Bother with posting my real words anymore; for twenty years, I spoke and wrote. What i got back was 90% of the time manipulation and lies or silence. Instead, I put them here. They matter- I MATTER. And I won’t allow myself to need validation from those who clearly only see me as ‘useful’.”…She went on to say “It was Never about freedom or openness. It was and Always WILL BE ABOUT RESPECT. What he doesnt man up about is that I wouldn’t BE IN THIS SITUATION ExCEPT FOR HIS LIES. What A Trip. “
She pulled out a notebook — pages upon pages of writing. The kind I’m familiar with. The words of her heart. I sat in that chair for an hour or more, tears on my cheeks, my gut in knots, my heart breaking at the words. I sat there, reading the rawness of her pain the realness of her beauty and the humanity of her compassion even when she herself had been cut down. Nothing less. Who does this to such a beautiful soul?
I looked up into her eyes. She had a far off look. And, I understood. When you are not important enough to be acknowledged; when you are given exactly Zero respect but expected to give it; when you put the whole of yourself quite literally into something and nothing comes back; when you realize that your very agency has been just an illusion- — - Then a response from Ai speaks louder than your own words. Those words are too valuable to waste on a post.
So to those who play — it’s the bottom of the ninth and overtime is not an option. ISC indeed.
