The Great AI Debate: A helpful tool or yet another vice tooling you?

Confession: I’ve used AI to create content. But I don’t have to tell you that, because it’s obvious, and every time I do use it, it gives me the ick. Not because it doesn’t do what I ask (with no errors might I add), but because it’s just not me, and honestly, in my humble opinion, it’s a lesser than version of me. I know that sounds prideful but here’s what I mean…

Sure, I start with my original idea, but that idea devoid of the effort it takes to see it through to completion, lacks so much potential, purpose, and originality. It’s not my effort, not my blood, sweat, and tears, not my wrestling through the massive amount of research and information. Instead of running to Chat GPT, it’s far more rewarding to allow the idea to flow through my own brain, be felt by my own heart, and be filtered through the very Word of God, which is the most valuable tool I’ll ever use to help me wrestle through and decipher truth.

It’s like working out. I can go to the gym, and I can watch someone else workout, or I can pull up a workout video and watch it, but unless I work out myself, exert my own energy, use own muscles, my body won’t change. I won’t get stronger. The whole experience wouldn’t accomplish the purpose for which it was intended.

Unless I work through the jumbled up thoughts myself, my mind, my heart, and my faith will not grow and strengthen. I will not change and continually be transformed into the person God is making me to be. In fact, I will likely be more confused and frustrated, and I will be left feeling useless and unsatisfied by the process because I am underwhelmed by the end result quickly and effortlessly generated by AI. Because with God’s help, I know what I’m capable of, and each time I read content created by AI, it’s just not me, and it lacks creativity, originality, and the cadence, voice, and word choice that make my writing unique.

When creativity lacks originality it shows up in mediocrity, and none of us want to settle for generic when we crave the authentic.

I’m seeing AI generated content everywhere online these days, and I know you are too. Graphics, articles, videos, content created quickly to communicate a generic message are infiltrating my social media feed, and it can be a bit cringy at times while leaving me frustrated by the lack of ingenuity. I desire more humanity and less sterility in the content I see because that creates a deeper connection since I am fully convinced by a real person’s words, not just an algorithm’s formula.

Now, hear me out, I’m not knocking AI entirely. I know it has its place, but I just don’t think its place is in my creative space. If my name is on an article, my words are in a book, or my image on a graphic, I want my community, my people, and my own personal integrity to know that article, book, or image was created by me, myself, and I (no matter how long it takes), and not quickly spit out by AI.

So, to answer the question I posed in the subtitle of this post, I still think AI can be both a tool and a vice. In matters of efficiency, research, organization, and solving practical problems, it can be an incredible tool, but in matters of character, creativity, wisdom, and spiritual formation, it can also become a vice that tempts us to trade the slow work of ongoing growth for a quick fix of compromised convenience.

The danger isn’t AI itself, but rather the temptation to trade the useful tool for the overused vice that renders the user quite useless in the end. I’ve concluded, at least for me personally in matters of creativity, I don’t want to short circuit the very process God is using to shape me. I’ll continue to pray that the wrestling produces wisdom, the discipline develops character, and the effort it takes to create refine the gifts He’s given me.

Perhaps I’ll let AI help me with tasks, but I don’t want it doing the work that was intended to grow, develop, and change me, because the greatest value isn’t in the thing we create, but the person we become while creating it.