As I type this, “Word Copilot”, Word’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) companion is sitting alongside me on the page, offering to help. The temptation is there and is of course fed by my human desire to do well, to appear insightful, to be helpful.
AI pokes at these tender places in all of us;
Not enough time? Get ChatGPT to do it,
Feeling lonely? Find an AI companion,
Feeling ugly/old/fat? Put a filter over that photo.
AI, in all its many guises offers us a convenient shortcut to relieve the pain and discomfort that comes with being human. But what is it costing us in the process? What are we missing when we take the shortcut?
AI in and of itself is neither “good” or “bad”, it is just a tool, like the zillions of other tools that have been invented by humans; the hammer or the shovel. However, all tools can become weapons in the hands of a human who is stressed, rushing and disconnected from themselves and that which is real.
Don’t let AI be the hammer with which we bop ourselves and each other over the head, let it be the hammer with which we build homes to shelter together in. Let it be the hammer to build solutions to the wicked problems our world is facing.
For some time now, global rates of critical thinking, empathy and creativity have been declining, and it is likely this will continue exponentially as we all lean into using the helpful AI tools available. So how can we support ourselves and our families to engage with AI but to do so thoughtfully and consciously and without losing connection to our humanness?
The first thing we can all do is train our minds against the pull of distraction that seems to be at epidemic rates. A distracted mind is frantic, it looks for shortcuts and it avoids deep thinking. Without deep thought, how will we ever learn to think critically or creatively?
The second is to learn to tune into our bodies and the messages it is sending us. Our bodies hold so much wisdom; you know that flip in your stomach when you meet someone new? We can learn to translate what that means for us – it could be a sign of a values misalignment, or a feeling of excitement or very simply a message saying, “hey there, you are hot!”. The trick is learning to translate these subtle whispers of our body and then acting accordingly. This is how we build trust in ourselves and in the world, this is how we build our very own personal refuge.
The third is to open our heart to the pain and discomfort, to the joy and the wonder of being human. We can develop skills to support us to manage and grow from, rather than avoid this pain as well as skills that can help us to embrace and savour the joy and wonder.
AI is here to stay; in much the same way social media was three decades ago and the internet some time before that. This stuff is not going away but that does not mean we have to be slaves to it. We can absolutely choose how to engage with it and use this hammer to build a kinder and more inclusive world where critical thinking, empathy and creativity soar! We just need to do the work of being human. Of being real.
Want to know more? Work with me to learn how to maximise your mind, body and heart in the age of AI through coaching, mentoring, psychotherapy or workshops.
Tldr:
AI is here to stay; how can we use it wisely rather than automatically?
o Train your mind to be less distracted
o Tune into the messages from your body to build inner trust
o Open your heart to the joy and the pain of being human