Is AI Going To Replace Your Child?
I won't lie.
As an artist and business owner, I’m worried about AI replacing me.
AI is smarter than me by a hundred-fold. It can brainstorm ideas, dig out research papers, write content and stories within seconds of being prompted. There’s no way I can outpace something that was built to displace the human brain.
So where does that leave me?
Where does Gosh! Kids, the creative photography & art school I built from scratch, stand among these giants?
More importantly, where does it leave your kids?
Cash is king!
When my family and I moved to Japan for the entire 2022, I had to get used to cash as the preferred mode of payment.
This came to me as a surprise. Wasn’t Japan supposed to be a leader in technology and a champion of efficiency? Turns out, the average Japanese person lived by the mantra 'cash is king'.
It’s not uncommon to see someone pull out a wad of bills to pay for their groceries, or exchange a Macbook Pro with $3000 worth of cold-hard cash.
Digitalisation is god’s gift to mankind, yet many here prefer to ditch the credit card for the old-school. They don’t care about convenience. The dusty old smell of a thousand ￥ bill gives them a taste of security.
It’s as simple as that.
Newsflash: personal preferences are still prevalent. There will always be someone who prefers this to that. New is not always better and the old is not always forgotten.
That is why whenever I read about how AI is going to take over the world and relinquish artists & business owners (i.e. me), I wonder to myself, isn’t the world big enough for both?
How do you choose?
The biggest problem I have running Gosh! Kids is finding mentors who can resonate with us.
They must carry the following: a belief in children, an eye for what is beautiful, experience in the arts, and an energy level that is high and beyond that of the children.
Choosing the right individual for the right place, for the right time and who has the taste to push the mission forward is probably the most challenging thing I’m experiencing.
It’s one thing to create. It’s another to choose.
But when you choose correctly, you strike gold.
So, here's the thing - your preferred mode of payment and who you hire share some similarities.
For one, your actions are propelled by what gives you comfort. You could tell from an instant whether this person is the right fit for your company. Maybe you avoid digital payments because you were brought up in a culture that prioritises the safe method. “Cash is king” didn’t come from nowhere. A sense of security is a sense of comfort.
Either way, you feel an instant connection with your choices. And that is something innately human.
I’ll explain in a bit.
Vincent Van Gogh? Who is that?
Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime and wasn’t a well-known artist when he was alive. After his death in 1890, Van Gogh’s sister-in-law began to promote his paintings, which were then recognized by the upper ranks of society.
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh (1889), sold for over $100 million.
Art critics and collectors connected with Van Gogh’s art. His work sparked an emotion within them. Amongst the thousands of other art pieces prying for attention, they somehow knew that Van Gogh's works were the one.
Starry Night wasn't chosen by the noblemen. It chose them.
Hence, this is the biggest challenge of any creator - to find the sweet spot between two overlapping circles. A place where the creator finds satisfaction, and a place where it brings the audience joy.
And because there is an existence of the middle spot, AI will have a hard time replacing what humans possessed throughout civilisation:
Discernment & choice.
ChatGPT is good, but it isn’t that good.
You've probably seen the news about ChatGPT passing high-level examinations. And yet we see it making simple mistakes related to geography:
The correct answer is Honduras.
Too bad ChatGPT couldn't discern that it was wrong. Gave it a little twist by adding "that isn't Mexico" and it came crashing down.
But the issue for me isn't about AI giving correct answers.
It's about the inconsistencies of its abilities. What else could it have gotten wrong? Can it speak for me? Can it know what I really like? Can it know what I really want?
But please don't be mistaken.
I think ChatGPT is one of the best inventions we ever had since the iPhone. I use it for my work everyday. It's a tool for everyone.
So if you thinking of following the footsteps of these institutions, I hope you would be discerning enough not to :)
So...what does this mean for my child?
A photographer can use his work to connect with his audiences by capturing the beauty of the world we live in. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
A holocaust survivor can sit by the balcony and pen down his experiences during the war and move you with his story of survival. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
A chef can create new dishes that taste good and are visually stunning. AI can’t do that, because it was never there.
And it definitely cannot cook.
I choose to use cash because it gives me comfort, and I'll definitely choose this candidate to represent my company because I believe she is the one.
AI can't decide for me, because it isn't me.
Therefore, whatever is happening in the world, focus on living a life that defines you and your children as human, one that is defined by:
1) Discernment - to differentiate right from wrong, black from white, and truth from lies.
2) Choice - to decide based on how you want it, when you want it and why you want it.
Pay more attention to the above. I believe they are applicable in any situation, at any given time, because they are irreplaceable and transferrable.
This why I still think we're in the game, for now.
A Personal Fun-Fact From Me:
As with all my newsletters, nothing about this edition was written by ChatGPT. Nothing. You can take my word for it. I only use ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas, or formulate my thought-process. All that you've read so far are either typed out in Notion or written on hand by a human being. Of course, hours of research were done prior. My partner, Mathieu, who is also an excellent mentor, writer & content manager, has contributed tremendously to these stories.
Btw, I tried prompting ChatGPT to write in my style by feeding it an example of my past writings. It was intelligent enough to do so, but it felt too.... artificial. Which is also why I feel that AI won't relinquish the need for real writers, for now :)
So why am I explaining myself?
Because while people rave about ChatGPT being the next big thing, I feel no connection to it.
Yes, it can super-speed all the menial tasks and save me hours, but I don't trust it to write my stories, or generate Instagram captions that can resonate with other human beings.
There are only certain things I can do, and that's what makes us unique 😉
Be well,
Miss G (@gladyssoh)
