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By Not Using Gen AI, Am I Burying My Head in the Sand?
Yes — and it looks awesome down here
For 36 years, I’ve been happily clicking things on computer screens.
It started with games, like SimEarth, in which I guided life’s evolution on a macro level and tried to prevent megafires, and Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge, in which I explored fictional lifeforms on another planet. Oh, look, a pulsating blob with tentacles. Click and be eaten.
Six or seven years later, internet phoned home. America Online sent CDs to our mailboxes, and we installed their application and entered our credit cards for a dial-up connection.
A decade after that, I got an office job as a data processor and subsequently had roles as an application tester and designer. This career was entirely based on clicking things on the computer.
I’m also a writer, and don’t get me started counting the ways in which writing involves clicking things on a computer. Think of the fact-checks: each personal memory I corroborate in my email archives, each belief about our shared world I check in a search engine. Think of writing on a micro level: think words, think links, think k-e-y-s-t-r-o-k-e-s.
If I’m contemplating any topic with even idle curiosity, it’s hard for me to resist searching for it. (Former classmates: If I remember your name, yes, I’ve looked up your social media posts.) Often, when I hear of new types of tech, I’m eager to click to learn more. I just want to know.
So I click.
But here’s something odd about me, about tech: I’ve never clicked to use Generative AI.
I’ve Never Intentionally Used Gen AI
I know that ChatGPT exists, but I couldn’t tell you where its lair is. Write-A-Fake-Essay-Dot-Com? Oh, sure, it’s no secret. Big Tech would be more than happy to onboard me, just as half of high-school-aged and…
