If you’re a creative person, you’ve felt the tension: How much creativity are the robots allowed?

It’s a fair question! Software developers write software. Novelists write novels. Artists paint. Graphic designers design. Fishers fish. 

The painful new reality is many are beginning to learn they don’t do what they thought they did. 

Business owners have all come to realize this. (And it’s usually a hard-won lesson.) Quickly, new business owners learn that they don’t “do the thing”; they are in the business of doing “the thing.” Ultimately, whatever business she’s in, it’s actually the marketing business — and the sooner she realizes, the better her family eats. 

But technicians are a different breed. They love the craft. They honor the craft. They respect the trade. 

Thus, a tragic divide in the world: Should AI be allowed to do art? The craft? 

A New Perspective 

The utilitarian among us don’t feel the need for such a hard line. 

If writing is necessary to market a business, and the business must be marketed, then so be it. The person with such a mindset asks some version of, “What’s the most effective path to get the written content I need?” 

Example A, my wife. She has a wonderful business making custom apparel for businesses and individuals. Writing is a necessary part of her job! But she freakin hates it.

So, who does the writing? ChatGPT of course! Her ideas. Her thoughts. Her touch. Her massaging. But AI wrote the words.

“Blasphemy!” cries the artist. 

But — in that way — she is not an artist. Why hold her to the same standard? 

We all know folks in the other camp; we’ve been discussing them. The crafters. Anti-AI at all costs. It might be a useful thinking partner but it has no part in the creativity, in principle. 

Are these people wrong? Of course not!

They respect the trade. They do it for the sake of doing it well, not for the second order benefits. 

We need these people. 

But here’s a radical idea — you don’t have to choose. 

The Third Way (Or, Do What I Do :D)

I reject these categories. 

I simply don’t think you have to choose between caring about your craft and sometimes, for more utilitarian purposes, letting AI participate in the creative process. 

There are many things I’m interested in, but few labels I accept as an identity. I love to podcast. But I’m not a podcaster. I love to fish. But I’m not a fisherman. I am a dad. A husband. A son. A Christian.

And I most certainly am a writer.

My ideal life is to wake up and be locked in a room with zero responsibilities other than producing ~3,000 words. 

Right now, I am typing this essay into a piece of software I have been working on for people like me. It has all the necessary bells and whistles but in a gorgeous, dead simple implementation. (Coming your way soon?) 

I have no clue if anyone will ever read this or use the tool I’ve spent over a dozen hours creating this week. 

Here I sit, clacking away. 

Cause I’m a writer. I love the craft. I care about it. 

And yet, I use the FOOL out of AI. Yes — to write. 

This?! No… not really. This first draft is all me. But AI may (or may not!) come behind me and clean it up a bit. Make it punchier. Easier to read. Etc. 

And 1000% AI will rework and redistribute this post for years to come. It’s really, really good at that. 

Find use cases for AI that enhance and accelerate your work. 

If you’re a crafter at heart but appreciate when something is utilitarian and the craft is not the most important aspect, take the third way. Lay out your ideas in a medium using the craft and let the AI come behind you and help spread your craft far and wide. 

Hear this: 

Every piece of content I put out — and thanks to AI, I’m now putting out a fair bit — originated with an idea that I wrote about or told it about first. 

My thought patterns, sentence structures, the minute details of voicing, the ideas certainly, and sometimes even the words themselves — all mine. 

(Yep, even all those em dashes.) 

Do your craft! But let AI help you as much as possible to distribute your craft far and wide. 

And, for some tough love, don’t be so snobby about the craft either. Sure it matters. But not every social post needs your personal touch. Let the robots distil your ideas and help you share them. 

It’s the future, baby! Revel in it.