a millennial black woman’s opinion on AI

i’m trying to figure out how i feel about ai, and i’ve been thinking about it a lot. maybe my opinions are a reflection of the era i was born in, but nevertheless, here we go.

in five years—or less—I think i’ll be considered an artisan. you know… like the man who cuts marble for custom designer projects. or the woodworker who gets called by people who appreciate real, heavy pieces over the hollow ikea ones. i think that’s where i’ll eventually sit as a brand designer. i’ll be for the people who want the old way. the people who still value the human process over the fast and cheap way.

i’m determined not to be afraid of ai.

i don’t want to be like the boomers who still don’t feel comfortable with online banking, so i use AI religiously. every day, the app is open alongside something else as a companion—a tool supporting whatever task is at hand. i use it for my health, my work, my relationships and my hobbies. i have folders inside of folders. i’ve connected it to certain apps, like apple health, to give me more comprehensive information. in other words, i use the heck out of it.

and while i let it reign free in some areas—because who’s really going to stop this revolution now?—in others, i prefer to fight with my invisible artificial bot. my prompts are long. one- or two-sentence prompts are unacceptable for me. i give it context upon context upon context to make sure i’m directing it where i want it to go.

when it gives me an answer that i know is off, i correct it sternly. when it says, “oh, you’re right. that changes things,” i challenge it not to appease me and to get it right the first time. i’ve even personalized my settings. take a forward-thinking view. don’t sugarcoat responses. cut straight to the chase. tell me when my idea is a bad one. all in all, i WORK my bot.

and i think that’s where i sit with it.

it’s great at what it does, but it’s not smarter than me. and i don’t completely trust it.

i had a conversation with my family not too long ago about misinformation and what we consider a legitimate source. AI systems are trained on enormous amounts of human-created information and, depending on the tool, can also retrieve information from the internet and other sources. and humans are biased. humans are also wrong. so i never feel completely convinced by every answer AI gives me.

i use the information—clearly—but i consume it with a grain of distrust. i question it. i verify things when they matter. and if something contradicts what i already know, i’m going to investigate before allowing the robot to convince me otherwise. i don’t know if that’s cynical or smart, but it’s my reality.

still, what a time to be alive.

this AI revolution we’re sitting in is inevitable. it’s incredible, and i believe it will permanently change the landscape of our world. it’s mind-bending to sit in the middle of a technological revolution and actually recognize that it’s happening around me. i’ve lived through one before—the internet and communications revolution—but this one hits different. this is beyond anything i ever conceived of. or even wanted. and yet, it’s utterly amazing.

but it doesn’t replace me. it doesn’t replace the millions of perceptive pieces of data i’ve acquired simply by being alive. it doesn’t have my instincts or the wide girth of creative juices i hold. it doesn’t know what it feels like to sit across from another person and notice that their body language doesn’t match what they’re saying. it doesn’t hear a shift in someone’s tone and instinctively know there’s something underneath it. it doesn’t know what it feels like to love someone. and it hasn’t lived like we all have.

and i think that distinction is going to become increasingly important.

but ultimately, i worry.

even though AI makes my life easier, i’m not convinced that everything it makes easier will ultimately make our lives better. the potential dangers of AI don’t hit me the same way as the potential dangers that came from streamlining albums, cassettes and cds into an ipod. this feels bigger.

i’m almost waiting with bated breath for the fork in the road where something this extraordinarily useful thing also becomes extraordinarily destructive. history has shown us this before. iron gave us bridges that connected people and weapons that helped us kill one another.

and that’s what i keep coming back to with AI. a discovery this significant increases what human beings are capable of doing, but it cannot determine what human beings will choose to do with that capability. and human intention has never been exclusively good or pure.

so yes, i’m going to use AI. i’m going to learn it, question it, argue with it, make it work for me and probably continue being amazed by what it can do. but i’m also going to keep something that feels increasingly important: a healthy respect for what it can’t do, a healthy distrust of what it tells me, and a very healthy concern about what we will choose to do with it.

we’re watching history happen in real time. so hold on to your hats, and let’s pray we as humans have the wisdom to handle what we’ve created. #doubtful