We’re in a world where, like it or not, AI is now ubiquitous. I have been thinking for a while about what this means for my work: how I do what I do, and why I (or any human) should do the kinds of work I do, as opposed to an LLM. It also makes me think about the impact an increasing global reliance on AI has, and will have in the future, on the things I care about.
I pride myself on building and treasuring positive relationships through my work, and a key part of that is openness, honesty and transparency. It therefore felt important to me to be clear on my position about the use of AI in my work. I fully expect this to revise and shift as I go, but here’s my starting point for now.
I am happy to discuss and amend my approach as and when to meet clients’ requirements and expectations so please do reach out for a conversation if you’d like to talk this through.
My concerns around AI are:
- The harm that rapid expansion of reliance on AI can cause, in a myriad of ways: environmental, social (e.g. housing being displaced by data centres), the growth in power of large corporations, and how to maintain privacy and security
- People pay me for MY expertise and experience, so that is what they should get
- Generative AI is known to amplify and perpetuate bias, stigma, prejudice and discrimination
- That it contributes to a harmful drive to be even more productive all of the time, that is detrimental to health and quality of life
- The detraction from human relationships which, for me, are at the heart of everything I care about.
Practical considerations for me when thinking about my use of AI:
- My time is at a premium. There is a lot of work I want to do, and I have two young children: I feel constantly torn between these two. (Oh, and the need to sleep occasionally too).
- I want to be able to be generous, offer my skills and experience at discounted rates for causes I believe in, and freely share my thinking with others
- I enjoy deep thinking, and the work that takes time is the most interesting work that I do. I don’t want to remove this, if anything I want to do more of it. I also don’t want to lose my skills that I’ve worked so hard to develop over the years.
- Integrity is really important to me. If my name is on something, it should be mine. I should be able to do discuss it confidently, and to defend it, and to use it.
Taking all this into account, in my work I may use AI to free up my time, make me more efficient and protect space for deep thinking work in the following ways:
- administrative tasks – meeting notes, to do lists, financial management
- guide me to the most useful information sources, which I then review myself
- help me get over blank page syndrome by providing useful templates/structures to get my thinking started
- basic quantitative data analysis
- as a learning tool to help me understand new concepts, or to help me prepare for interviews or presentations.
I always:
- do the thinking myself: I can explain, present and defend my work with confidence
- write, edit and proofread my work
- seek consent for anything I feed into an LLM
- credit any external sources and references where used
- hold ultimate responsibility and accountability for my work.
I never:
- base my work on AI’s ideas. If you contract me, you are getting my own ideas, experience, values and opinions – not an LLM’s.
- share personal information with AI
- use AI for qualitative research analysis about human knowledge, views, feelings and experiences
- give AI any blanket access to my files.