Don't Outsource Your Imagination to Technology

Want to become irreplaceable in the era of AI? The kids know what we need:

Imagination.

Everyone using generative AI faces a fork in the road, and I'm here to rant against one and support the other.

The trillion-dollar question IMO: Do you use the tech to outsource your imagination or unblock it?

The fantastic Paul Roetzer (arguably the world's most knowledge analyst of AI as it applies to marketing and content related uses) told me something today in a Twitter reply which I will never forget.

"As my daughter (10 at the time) said the first time I showed her DALL-E, 'They're just stealing other people's imaginations.' Still probably the best explanation I've heard of how generative AI works."

He went on to say that she told him "she never wants her artwork online because her imagination is what makes her unique and she doesn't want it taken. Yes, I cried. It was beautiful, innocent and profound. I think about that everyday."

...

Man.

People get so damn caught up in the advancements of tech, whether because they're genuinely excited for the good it can do broadly or they see a way to get a quick win or even get famous by making their entire identity about that thing, that we forget the foundational elements of this work that make us irreplaceable and beloved by others.

This is the fork in our road:

PATH #1: Use generative AI to UNBLOCK your imagination.

This might be fantastic.

When you're stuck, or when your momentum could get derailed searching for some little piece of the puzzle, or when your organization is all wrong, or when your alternative to using the tech is to NOT write or create at all? Knock yourself out. These tools are your friends. Your interns, really. That's the best use case. They're digital gofers.

PATH #2: Use generative AI to OUTSOURCE your imagination.

This will unfortunately be the most common use case, because the vast majority of people who create content don't care about the process. They want to fill a slot so they don't get fired, or they see content as a means of triggering a result. There's no care for craft and no love of it.

Unlike you. That's why you will be irreplaceable. If you made it this far, AI will be your intern. For others, it will be their demise. They will be even more commodified than before. (Congrats, we can now ignore your work at scale!)

In the end, it's tempting to think about speed and volume, but we ought to think about something else.

Power.

The power of our ideas, our power-per-word, and the ability to resonate deeply -- there's just something that a master chef can produce that a factory kitchen can't. We know it when we receive it. It's more important than ever that we create it too. And it starts in the same place:

Imagination.

Support it how you will. Just please, dear Lord, please:

Don't outsource it.

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PS: Highly suggest subscribing to Paul's work over at the Marketing AI Institute.