So, it’s 2023 and EVERYONE is talking about AI.

It’s neat. It’s fun. It’s cool.

OR…

It will steal jobs. It will kill creativity. It will awaken Skynet and we’ll all end up fighting behind Kyle Reese and John Connor against a bunch of robots that inexplicably look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Fact is, no one knows yet. Yet, some people have decided that it’s OK to use it at work. And that’s kind of a problem. About a month ago I was working on a project where we had to create a shortlist of Instagram and TikTok influencers to work with for __________ month. The person tasked with giving me a list to vet decided to use ChatGPT to compile the list. 85% of the “users” I was given either didn’t exist, weren’t active, or didn’t have enough followers to meet my criteria. So I sent the list back. The next day, I got another AI-generated list with similar results. At the end of the day, I went through at least three rounds with this person and their sketchy results before compiling my own list — it took me about 10 minutes.

In another case, a colleague who didn’t like some name choices we came up with for a product chose to “Ask ChatGPT” to review them and — SHOCKER — it agreed with him, with some generic reasoning and language clearly picked out of a marketing textbook from 10 years ago. Dude, that’s the same as going home and asking your mom to review my work. It’s pretty worthless. And point of fact, some of the best, most memorable marketing and advertising that has ever happened didn’t “look good on paper,” or come right out of the textbook. A lot of it shouldn’t have worked. Couldn’t have worked. But somehow the Pets.com sock puppet, humorous insurance commercials, and the McRib all overcame the odds.

Why? Human reasons. We’re complicated, nuanced, and still surprisingly unpredictable. What worked on us today may work for the rest of our lives, or fade as quickly from our consciousness as fidget spinners or the latest dance challenge.

Look, AI is clearly here to stay. But while the high-end output for some artwork and writing is sort of impressive, AI still has its flaws. Enough that I don’t quite trust it as anything more than a curiosity right now. And this is speaking as someone who has spent most of his adult life as an early adopter.

Electric bikes and cars have been around for a while now, and we’re still finding issues with them — just Google “e-bike fire.” I’ll wait. It’s good tech, and is relatively mature, but still has kinks. Comparatively, AI is at best a tween.

Artificial intelligence has a lot of promise, but right now it’s a digital version of a Magic 8-Ball. It’s great for adding a Martian sunset to my toy photography or making my boring selfie look like the next MCU superhero. And it can be a great tool or sounding board, someday. But also remember that “someday,” we were all supposed to be riding around on Segways.

If you wanna let AI do your taxes or plan your next vacation, more power to you. But at the very least, the fact that researchers, legislators, and its own creators are still debating its usefulness (and accuracy) is probably a good indication that you shouldn’t be using it to make any major life (or work) decisions.

This is the part where I reveal that this was written by AI. Plot twist: It wasn’t.

I’ll just be over here waiting for my Roomba to turn into a Terminator.

Hey Look! Another Uninformed Opinion on AI!

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