I’ve been thinking about how much I use AI lately. Recently, I’ve started letting AI take the lead on almost all of my writing …

I’ll feed it what I’m thinking, what I’m doing, what I’ve learned, or what I’m trying to say… and somehow it turns all of that into a two-page report.Then I’ll tell it, “That’s way too much. Scale it back.” And it gives me two paragraphs.

Sometimes I laugh at how ridiculous that is.

But there is something more serious underneath it.My voice is becoming secondary. I’m not just talking about spell-check lazy. I’m talking about whole-blog-post lazy. I can dump a bunch of thoughts into ChatGPT, much like I’m doing right now, and it can turn those thoughts into something organized, readable and presentable that I can share with the general public.

And let’s be honest… it makes things acceptable.

Not that I ever say anything offensive. LOL. But AI has a way of taking my sometimes scattered thoughts and smoothing out the rough edges. It makes them sound like they belong together.

I don’t always agree with what it generates.

Sometimes I let something slide. Sometimes I call it out. Sometimes I’ll tell it, “Nope… that’s not what I meant.”

But I always read what it generates.

And ultimately, I edit everything before I post it somewhere.

That’s an important distinction for me.

I use Facebook and my GitHub Pages site as my primary ways of putting my thoughts and ideas out into the world. AI has become a tool that helps me consolidate all the things rattling around in my head into one cohesive post.

And writing isn’t even the only thing I use it for.

Data is another big one.

AI can go through city records, budgets, reports and other piles of information and analyze them in ways I simply don’t have the time, tools or ability to do myself. That has become particularly useful when I’m trying to understand what is actually happening with housing, homelessness and public spending.

I also use AI for searching now.

Sure, I still use Google. If I’m looking for something specific to buy, I’ll probably go straight to Google.

But if I want an answer… I ask ChatGPT.

Either way, I’m using these things as tools.

And I understand the arguments against AI.

Don’t use it because it’s killing the environment.

Don’t use it because it’s destroying jobs.

Those are real concerns, and they concern me too.

But I’m also not going to pretend I don’t see the benefits.

AI accelerates my writing. It helps me process information. It lets me work with enormous amounts of data. It helps me take the dozens of disconnected thoughts in my head and turn them into something I can actually communicate.

That’s incredibly useful.

But there is a danger in that convenience.

If I stop doing the thinking because the machine will do it for me…

If I stop learning how to write because the machine can write better…

If I stop questioning the answers because they sound good…

then I’ve stopped using a tool and started letting the tool use me.

That’s where I think we need to be careful.

Maybe the real question isn’t whether we should use AI.

Maybe it’s how much of ourselves we’re willing to hand over to it.

I’m still figuring that out myself.

For now, I know I’m using it.

A lot.

And I’m probably going to keep using it.

Because when it comes to technology…

I’m selfishly drawn to the flame like the moth.