AI, friend or foe? - Ramblings of an ADHDer

Welcome to my new blog series, "Ramblings of an ADHDer", where I will be, you guessed it right, rambling. Enjoy!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a very useful tool. It can assist you in, almost, every aspect of your life. In my everyday life, I have noticed that my use of AI has increased, maybe a bit too much, so I started thinking: "AI, friend or foe?".

At work, AI has overtaken Google as my primary researching tool, and when there's an email that I need to write, but don't know how to fully structure it or write it in a professional way, while keeping it understandable, I use AI for support. I've been working years without AI, so why do I suddenly use it for the things that I've been able to do without AI? The main reason, I believe, is convenience. But the underlying reasons go much deeper. I've always struggled with writing emails, I feel like they're not professional enough or well thought out. When I use Google, I often don't get the correct results, because I forget to mention some key details in my search, so it's useful to get AI to ask you follow up questions to refine the search, so you get the information that you actually need without wasting an hour formulating a question. 

Because of my ADHD, I find it hard sometimes to write large pieces of text, emails or take time to do extensive research. I get distracted fast or forget key details, like I mentioned before. I also tend to repeat myself multiple times (I noticed this while rereading the blog a few times). While writing an email, I feel like I'm rambling too much and, therefore it might not be very understandable. The temptation to turn to AI is very big in those moments, because it can make the email more coherent and professional. 

I find it perfectly acceptable to use AI for things that does not impact the emotion and feeling that you are trying to portray and if it improves your mental state. For example, writing an email can cause stress, especially when you are doubting yourself about the content of the email and what the recipient might think. Moreover, researching for work (specially in my area, IT) can be very time intensive. So, if it can be halved by using AI, making my life easier and freeing time for other, more important tasks, using it might outweigh the downsides.  

I say the downsides of AI, because there are a few. AI is not 100% accurate. For example, there is an issue where, when you ask ChatGPT "How many R's are in the word Strawberry”, it thinks there are only 2. Therefore, you cannot take everything it says at face value.  

Also, the systems and hardware behind AI use a lot of energy and water. According to studies, the predicted 2026 energy and water usage for AI, worldwide, will be surpassing the energy and water usage of Denmark. When it comes to thanking ChatGPT after it gives you an answer, please don't do that. Every time you send a message it costs a lot of energy and water. 

I've seen hoaxes going around that AI gives you better answers when you're nice to it. AI doesn't mind if you're nice or not, it only matters how descriptive you write your questions. If you write in a nice tone of voice, it gives you a response in relatively the same way, but the information you will receive will not change. On the other hand, if you insult ChatGPT, it will just say that it will not provide you with answers if you keep using that language, which I think is kind of neat.  

When it comes to books, news articles, blog posts, and perhaps social media posts to an extent, I feel that AI should not be used at all. The way a writer expresses themselves, should not been handed over to AI, even if it is possible to give it a tone of voice. There is a uniqueness to every writer, from the way they write, and the way they express the emotions and actions of their characters, their opinions and their feelings. Each writer has their own unique style, and that style is what makes them connect with their audience. 

For example, lately I've been reading news articles where a lot, if not most of them, are AI generated. The editors do check them before posting the story, but I get annoyed when I see that. It might be accurate information (I do question if it is), but it doesn't give me any emotional connection to the piece. It feels, as might be expected of a machine, robotic and fake. 

I have always wanted to write. I've wanted to tell stories, create whole worlds for that matter. But, whenever I started, I quit quite soon after. Sometimes it was because I lost interest in what I was doing, because other shiny things came along (I want to thank my ADHD for that). Other times, it was because I felt like I wasn't good enough. Not good enough to write, or that my ideas were not good enough or interesting enough, and people would not be interested in reading what I had to say. I wouldn't say that AI gave me the confidence to write, but it did give me more of a drive. Whenever I used AI to create stories and come up with ideas, I felt a hint of guilt, because it wasn't me that wrote the story. Sure, it was my idea and the stories sort of went how I envisioned it, but it wasn't my voice. It wasn't conveying emotion properly and the characters felt fake. It just wasn't me. 

Before writing this blog, I had a little nervous break-down, which might be a topic for another blog post, because I thought: “what if people don't like what I have to say, the way I write or structure the text?”. BUT, for all the flaws that you might think your writings have, it is your voice and there are people that want to hear it and will connect with it. I want to thank my lovely wife for that piece of advice. So, I finally decided to just write this blog and ramble on about my thoughts regarding AI and conveying emotions through the written word. It might not be the best written piece, it might lack a bit of depth at times, but it's my voice and I'm feeling proud writing it down. 

I did not really have an end goal in mind for this blog post, but the take-away I want to give you is this: Don't use AI when expressing emotions and vulnerability, because you'll lose just that. Use the voice that you have, because no computer can fully convey the emotion and feeling that YOU want to convey and it will take away your authentic voice.