Are you starting to doubt what’s real?
This past week I had a chat with a new Frolic 100 member, who had watched some of my videos and read some articles beforehand. She made a bunch of notes and before our scheduled call I received an email about how my material had affected her. A lot of her comments were touching and personal.
However, I noticed something; I could tell it was written in ChatGPTs “voice”.
So when we connected shortly after, I had to ask: Was the email written by an AI?
Her answer was reasonable, that she had made several pages of notes (which she showed me) and used ChatGPT to make them easier to digest. Fair enough.
However, I had to admit, the impact of what she shared with me was dulled, because I knew it wasn’t 100% her.
Fortunately, because we were talking, we were able to dive much deeper on how my work impacts her, and that was a really valuable call for me and reminded me about why I do what I do.
But it left me with a takeaway – I value human contact and communication so much, I don’t even want a suspicion of AI having written it. I want the messy and real versions.
And I don’t want my words to be suspect either. I’d rather be messy and real. I want what I have to share to have its full impact. I never want my voice questioned.
So I added a new line to my email signature that says “NOTE: Everything I send by email is handwritten by me.”
And while I continue to explore how AI can help me, the one thing I will not have it do is write for me. So I want to make it clear anything I share on my website is also handwritten by me.
And on my new LinkedIn account, I can see that AI is actively encouraged, so I added another disclaimer to my profile there that everything I post is written by me by hand.
I want this to be known. I believe this will be more and more important in a world filled with AI content.
And for further clarity, I am a user of technology: I may use AI to suggest grammar fixes on articles I’ve already written, I may use it for ideas and to creatively spar with, and I may use it to write or create things that are NOT in my voice (like a back of book blurb, or a piece of marketing – things I might have hired someone to do).
My distinction is that my voice, my personal writings and correspondence, will be from me.
I suspect most people will not care, but SOME people will care and those are the people I want to reach.
And as I ask myself what I want from you, it’s the same. Be real, be messy, when you communicate with me.
This article was written for you.
By me.
