Embracing AI with skepticism and curiosity

I don’t have an issue with people being skeptical of new technology. I’m skeptical too, and so should you. We should be asking hard questions about how these systems are built, who they exploit, and who they ultimately serve. But when the critique turns into a litmus test for moral worth—when someone implies that using a tool makes you complicit, compromised, or creatively bankrupt—we’ve crossed out of analysis and into something else entirely.

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It’s easy to reject a tool when you’re not under pressure to use it. When your work isn’t subject to performance reviews, sprint cycles, client demands, or executive mandates. When you’ve never had your job rewritten out from under you by someone who saw an AI demo and decided “yeah, let’s do that.” It’s not courage. It’s insulation.

Greg’s approach to using AI as a tool matches up what I’ve seen from Seth Godin over the last year. Both write about AI and are optimistic about its benefit, but also understand how humanity can work alongside these new tools.

When I was younger I learned to illustrate digitally. At the time it was frowned on. People asked if I knew how to really draw on paper. Of course I did. Paper is ageless. But it’s just a technology. It’s not something that was intended to stay the same forever. It will never be replaced, because it’s amazing. But it’s not the only way to draw.

In my job I use AI. Partially because I am curious and happy to push into new areas of learning. But it’s fast becoming an industry standard. Is this a good thing? I’m not sure. But I live in a society where work like this shifts every few years, and to not follow along could be the difference between providing for my family or going on food stamps. I don’t have some luxurious backup plan to not work.

That said, I don’t approach AI out of some obligation. That will never work. Instead I’m curious every day, poking at it, playing with it, and trying to understand how I can use it to push my creativity further.

There’s a difference between thoughtful skepticism and condescending distance. The former is useful. The latter is just another form of self-congratulation. And it doesn’t help the people doing the work—people trying to stay human, thoughtful, and creative inside systems that make all three of those things harder by the day.

I agree. So many designers and programmers—my friends, people I’ve grown alongside for years—are using these tools. Some out of curiosity, others out of necessity.

If the typewriter were invented today I’d have to use it. My handwriting sucks, but I can write fast with a keyboard. To not use it would just hamper my ability to create.

Via Brilliant Crank.