AI cannot "transform a blank page into black feathers with the pressure of a human touch." what a powerful metaphor.
I am thinking a lot about AI these days (as I'm sure many of us creatives are), and the most important words I keep circling around are 'intelligence' and 'meaning'.
AI = short for Artificial Intelligence = a chewy choice of words, gradually fudged into things it cannot live up to, charged with stolen meaning, boasting fake meaning, while killing off true meaning... challenging human intelligence...
when 'artificial' means 'made by humans' (as well as 'fake, sham, inauthentic') and 'intelligence' is used in the restricted sense of 'the ability to perform computer functions' (while being implicitly equated with true human intelligence which is so much more) we very much need genuine human living intelligence to spell it out.
Thank you, Emily, for doing just that with such eloquence 💗🙏
Thank you for reading, Veronica, and for such a wonderful and thoughtful comment. I think we are all thinking a lot about AI - I did worry about it when it first started to become popular, and I worry still in terms of the impact on creatives and the moral and ethical aspects, but I also see there are ways it can be useful, just not in replacing art or creative writing. I think we will always want human made art.
Oh my goodness Emily, I am speechless with gratitude for what has to be the most beautifully eloquent and breathtaking rant I have ever read! We need beautiful reminders like this so very badly right now.
I have read every word twice and still can't decide which sentence I love best... but this touched me deeply "It cannot let a sentence linger on the lips, shape meaning from memory, and the music of the mind." I wish I had written this whole essay! ♥️
I love every word you've written, agree with all my heart and creative soul! Thank you for yours lovely.. so much xxx
I am left speechless also, thank you so much for your words. I have felt the same when reading your own letters, stunned by the potency and poetry and power of your words. This means so very much to me, you have no idea. I am so sad each time I see people worrying over AI. The billionaires and the techbros will do what they will, but creativity cannot be tamed. We write, we draw, we create on 💛
I try not to think about AI at all lovely, but when I hear my students telling me how they use it for homework and research it is more than worrying, already the level of learning capacity is dropping… how will it be in another ten years? Will the future generations actually be capable of anything more than asking a robot? That said, AI can never replace those of us that were born with creative minds - not ever! xx
So beautifully said. As a singer, I especially appreciate your lines about vowels and consonants and the feel of words and sounds in your mouth and body.
Thank you for reading Cynthia and for your lovely comment. There is so much beauty in words, isn’t there? The way we say, or sing, them, the way we think them, how we use them in writing - AI can mimic, but synthetic voices, written, spoken or sung, will never come close. 💛✨
Love love love the bird! And my favorite part is: "It cannot roll a word, slowly, around a tongue, in a mouth full of teeth, feel the pull of muscles shaping phrases to reverberate in a larynx, or taste the weight of syllables balanced on a breath." Breathtaking beauty here!
Thank you for reading Simone, and for your kind words, the physicality and consciousness of our creativity is what makes it ours, what makes it human — I love how you’ve phrased it — consciousness in creation 💛✨
Beautiful essay on what it means to be human. We, as embodied people, have never had to grapple with this before faced, as we are, with the threat of the unhuman.
Sure, there were those who feared the printing press would remove the power of the spoken word; that the telephone would remove from us the need to interact face-to-face; that the speed of locomotives would upset the order of Nature. That the assembly line would make the work of the craftsman obsolete.
And to some extent, those things have unfolded.
But I would say these are technologies of addition, not subtraction. They have given us greater-than-human capacities.
But not in the history of humankind has there been one tool that could overtake everyone, everywhere, all at once--and where even it's designers aren't sure how it is doing what it is doing, beyond soaking up all our human labor over aeons and mashing it into something that apes us.
How do we permanently imprint the memory--the touch, the feel, the smell, the sound, the sight, the emotion--of all that is human so future generations will remember who we really are?
Thank you for reading Robin and your thoughtful comments. I agree - progress and development aren’t bad in themselves - for me, it’s that human creativity is so much in our bodies, in the connection to our humanity, that can’t be replicated.
Yes, in our bodies. But what if, used for the good of us, AI want just another enhancement that extends and expands our still-embodied, physical manifestations of creativity? Something to think about…
Yes! Yes!! YES!!!
AI cannot "transform a blank page into black feathers with the pressure of a human touch." what a powerful metaphor.
I am thinking a lot about AI these days (as I'm sure many of us creatives are), and the most important words I keep circling around are 'intelligence' and 'meaning'.
AI = short for Artificial Intelligence = a chewy choice of words, gradually fudged into things it cannot live up to, charged with stolen meaning, boasting fake meaning, while killing off true meaning... challenging human intelligence...
when 'artificial' means 'made by humans' (as well as 'fake, sham, inauthentic') and 'intelligence' is used in the restricted sense of 'the ability to perform computer functions' (while being implicitly equated with true human intelligence which is so much more) we very much need genuine human living intelligence to spell it out.
Thank you, Emily, for doing just that with such eloquence 💗🙏
Thank you for reading, Veronica, and for such a wonderful and thoughtful comment. I think we are all thinking a lot about AI - I did worry about it when it first started to become popular, and I worry still in terms of the impact on creatives and the moral and ethical aspects, but I also see there are ways it can be useful, just not in replacing art or creative writing. I think we will always want human made art.
What a beautiful and thoughtful manifesto about creativity. Hear, hear!
You are very kind Klamo, it’s always a joy to see you in the comments 🥰
Oh my goodness Emily, I am speechless with gratitude for what has to be the most beautifully eloquent and breathtaking rant I have ever read! We need beautiful reminders like this so very badly right now.
I have read every word twice and still can't decide which sentence I love best... but this touched me deeply "It cannot let a sentence linger on the lips, shape meaning from memory, and the music of the mind." I wish I had written this whole essay! ♥️
I love every word you've written, agree with all my heart and creative soul! Thank you for yours lovely.. so much xxx
I am left speechless also, thank you so much for your words. I have felt the same when reading your own letters, stunned by the potency and poetry and power of your words. This means so very much to me, you have no idea. I am so sad each time I see people worrying over AI. The billionaires and the techbros will do what they will, but creativity cannot be tamed. We write, we draw, we create on 💛
I try not to think about AI at all lovely, but when I hear my students telling me how they use it for homework and research it is more than worrying, already the level of learning capacity is dropping… how will it be in another ten years? Will the future generations actually be capable of anything more than asking a robot? That said, AI can never replace those of us that were born with creative minds - not ever! xx
I believe they will Susie, I have to. I don’t think human creativity will ever disappear 💛✨
Hold that though Emily and I will too - happy weekend lovely - at last I am on holiday - my sigh is enormous, all I need now is to sleep!
Sending love 💛xx
Sweet dreams x
Truth ♥️
Thank you Linn x
Your writing is so beautiful! All so true 💜
Thank you Kate 💛
Beautifully said ❤️
Thank you 💛
So beautifully said. As a singer, I especially appreciate your lines about vowels and consonants and the feel of words and sounds in your mouth and body.
Thank you for reading Cynthia and for your lovely comment. There is so much beauty in words, isn’t there? The way we say, or sing, them, the way we think them, how we use them in writing - AI can mimic, but synthetic voices, written, spoken or sung, will never come close. 💛✨
So beautiful Emily. And yes yes yes! ❤️
Thank you Jo 💛
Love love love the bird! And my favorite part is: "It cannot roll a word, slowly, around a tongue, in a mouth full of teeth, feel the pull of muscles shaping phrases to reverberate in a larynx, or taste the weight of syllables balanced on a breath." Breathtaking beauty here!
You are very kind Jenny, thank you 💛 choosing words that are just right, that feel right, that sound right, only human creativity can do that x
This is beautiful!
Thanks Jessica ✨💛
Yes to this! 🙌💕
Thank you so much Caroline 💛
Amen to this!!!
Thank you Sarah 💛✨
This is beautiful and brilliant, it reminds us of what we are - consciousness in creation. Your prose is a poem, thank you 🙏💚
Thank you for reading Simone, and for your kind words, the physicality and consciousness of our creativity is what makes it ours, what makes it human — I love how you’ve phrased it — consciousness in creation 💛✨
😊🙏💚
Beautiful essay on what it means to be human. We, as embodied people, have never had to grapple with this before faced, as we are, with the threat of the unhuman.
Sure, there were those who feared the printing press would remove the power of the spoken word; that the telephone would remove from us the need to interact face-to-face; that the speed of locomotives would upset the order of Nature. That the assembly line would make the work of the craftsman obsolete.
And to some extent, those things have unfolded.
But I would say these are technologies of addition, not subtraction. They have given us greater-than-human capacities.
But not in the history of humankind has there been one tool that could overtake everyone, everywhere, all at once--and where even it's designers aren't sure how it is doing what it is doing, beyond soaking up all our human labor over aeons and mashing it into something that apes us.
How do we permanently imprint the memory--the touch, the feel, the smell, the sound, the sight, the emotion--of all that is human so future generations will remember who we really are?
Thank you for reading Robin and your thoughtful comments. I agree - progress and development aren’t bad in themselves - for me, it’s that human creativity is so much in our bodies, in the connection to our humanity, that can’t be replicated.
Yes, in our bodies. But what if, used for the good of us, AI want just another enhancement that extends and expands our still-embodied, physical manifestations of creativity? Something to think about…
Gorgeous reading. Absolutely lovely piece put so eloquently.
Thank you Ben 💛
👏👏👏👏
Thank you An 🙏
It is my pleasure!! 🙏🌸