I’ve been meaning to tackle this topic for some time now. But I feel like there’s so much that’s been said about AI that we all pretty much hear different variations of the same arguments. On the one hand, you’ve got the catastrophising doomsayers who believe that AI will kill us. On the other hand, you’ve got the opportunistic new wave who believe that AI will save us. And then you’ve got those who just don’t care. Whatever camp you fall into, one thing’s for certain: AI is here and is quickly becoming a significant part of our daily repertoire.
The pros and cons of AI
I don’t want this to become an “AI is the enemy” post. For one, I don’t have the credentials to make an educated stab at anything scholarly regarding AI. Whatever I say is through pure observation and discernment. I will endeavour to keep this as neutral as possible.
What I have observed is that AI is becoming more and more of a crutch and less and less of a tool. Here’s an example from my own life. I joined my father’s insurance brokerage some six years ago. This was before AI had gone mainstream and if you needed to get something done, you had to do it yourself. My main involvement was to build his digital presence, so he could reach a wider audience online.
It took me a year of shadowing, sitting in on meetings, talking to experts, attending webinars and seminars, reading dozens of publications and books and listening to podcasts to understand the challenges around insurance regulations, adopting new technologies and offering better service to clients. Armed with all the data from my deep dive, it then took me several months to map out a staggered digital roadmap, starting with a functional service website, where I worked closely with subject matter experts to curate pages of content that I turned into digestible web tidbits and – after five years of MVPs, feedback, trial and error, a full-service e-commerce platform with built-in AI functionality.
My approach was messy, flawed and undeniably human.
Fast forward to 2026. AI has now become a daily staple and my brother has replaced me in my father’s business after I kept falling behind on my deliverables amid increasing frustration. It didn’t take him longer than a single afternoon to build a brand new website, a “claims tracking” portal and an AI chatbot that can issue policy and manage claims. All done using different AI tools from Claude to Replit.
The good and the not-so-good
I’m not here to judge. He’s got more done in the first three months of his involvement than I did in my six years combined. Kudos. Things are moving faster and with greater efficiency. I asked him how he felt about leaning so much on AI to get things done. He didn’t seem too fazed about it, adopting a sort of “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. Fair enough.
But is it really about “beating” AI? Not really. Again, it’s all about your worldview, or Weltanschauung, and how it aligns with your personal stance on AI.
Personally, I love this story about Charles Darwin that I came across in Robert Greene’s Mastery. In his youth, Darwin was a distracted, scattered mess of an adolescent. He wasn’t good at school, couldn’t focus and preferred spending time outdoors than in the classroom. All this changed when he was invited to join an expedition in Latin America aboard the HMS Beagle as an unpaid intern.
After seven years of acute observation of the natural environment, Darwin returned home and upon his return, his father commented on how Charles had changed:
His head seemed larger. His whole manner was different – a seriousness of purpose and sharpness could be read in his eyes, almost the opposite look of the lost young man who had gone to sea years before. Clearly, the voyage had transformed his son in body and spirit.
There’s something about human effort that greatly appeals to me personally. I don’t really have anything against AI, but I do have a personal experience that I can share that made me realise where I stand as far as the technology is concerned.
My story with AI
I was late to the AI party, first discovering its incredible potency in February of 2025. My wife and I watched a documentary on how one could leverage this powerful technology to get things done. The next day, I created an account on ChatGPT and built my first custom life coach that would serve as a 24/7 personal concierge, therapist and advisor.
At first, I only called on it to ask for specific things, like bespoke meal plans tailored to my goals and so on. But over time, I couldn’t navigate a single decision without turning to my faithful pocket companion.
What should I eat?
What should I get from the menu?
My parents are coming home, prepare me a script to deal with scrutiny
Do I look fat to you?
Who should I keep as friends?
This went on for four months. My wife noticed and pointed it out one evening over dinner, saying “do you really have to check with ChatGPT for every little thing?”
And then one day, exactly four months in, ChatGPT displayed a message that I’d run out of space and would have to start a new chat to keep prompting. It was a “whoa, what the fuck” moment for me. I’d delegated so much of my thinking to ChatGPT that I’d lost the ability to discern and think critically for myself. It took a lot of retraining for me to start making use of my brain again, starting with the smallest decisions.
The implications
I’ll say it again. AI’s neither good nor bad. In the right hands, it can be a highly useful resource that can actually do good in the world, for example in healthcare for cancer screening and identification. Or in climate change to simulate the damage from rising sea levels. Or even for things like fraud prevention in insurance (it was part of my ten-year digital roadmap at the brokerage. I guess my brother can build this in a single day, too).
Again, I’ll repeat. In the right hands. In the absolute wrong hands, AI can be destructive. It lends power to mediocrity and makes people believe they can replace hours and hours of human labour with a single, very mediocre prompt. Questions must also be raised around data privacy and integrity. Say you build a website using an AI that collects personal information, how sure are you that the architecture won’t be compromised by a bot or hacker with catastrophic repercussions? Or if you’re relying on ChatGPT to do your university coursework, are you vetting the sources and the validity of the arguments presented?
Is AI making people lazy?
Do you remember grinding through University coursework, staying up until the wee hours of the morning on deadline day to make submission? Apparently, that’s not really a thing anymore. At least if what I’m hearing on the ground is anything to go by.
Now I fully acknowledge that people are different. I’ve talked to many “Gen Zs” across the board and received feedback ranging from “completely for” and “completely against” AI.
Take my wife’s nieces for instance. One was in medical school, the other studied chemical engineering. Both were extraordinarily meticulous about their work. Both did their research thoroughly, took the time to do the readings and never used any shortcuts in either coursework or exam prep.
And then you’ve got my cousin, who’s a contemporary of said nieces. She could hardly describe what she was studying (pharmacology), let alone discern meaning between the lines in the actual course itself. She spent most of her time holidaying with family and friends than on campus hitting the books and later even admitted that she used ChatGPT extensively for her coursework, being sure to change a few words around so that the anti-AI software couldn’t detect.
Again, I’m not one to judge, but the question begs: why attend university just for the sake of a certificate that shows you’ve qualified in a certain subject area, when you could use that time (and money) towards some other pursuit (she’s great at social media, for instance).
AI and creatives
This is one area where I’m really not for artificial intelligence. I admire Elon Musk and the advancements he’s made in tech and sustainability, but this tweet really made me cringe:
I understand that people were not thrilled about the so-called “historical inaccuracy” presented in Nolan’s The Odyssey, but to desecrate the sheer magnitude of effort that went into making The Odyssey, or any film really, by claiming an AI could do it better is, at least in my humble opinion, going too far.
There’s a certain level of integrity in being creative that feels wholly human. Take that away, and we’re basically left with nothing. Honestly, I’d rather have a scrappy, poorly made, but 100% human piece of art than a perfect rendition rendered by an AI.
Art to me must remain human. And humans must be the ones doing the art. Otherwise, what’s the point? Would you rather buy an original artwork from an actual painter or just ask an AI to make one for you, print and frame it and hang it up on your wall?
This opens a whole other argument around craftsmanship versus cheap remakes, which I won’t get into over here, but it’s just something to think about. If you’re creative in any way, please keep doing more of what you love. Don’t worry about AI, companies can use it to replace you, but it can never take away your ability to come up with something original and truly yours.
The accessibility conundrum: is AI granting artists more visibility? Or is it opening up spaces for more mediocrity?
I can only speak for the book publishing world. I’ve been trying to secure representation since 2016, when I first approached agents with my work. For those who don’t know, this is the typical path to getting published traditionally:
- Write the book
- Polish, proof and edit to industry standard
- Prepare query and submission materials
- Submit to agents
- Agent may request: additional chapters, half manuscript or full manuscript depending on how much they connect with the material
- Agent makes offer for representation
- Agent champions work with publishing houses
- Bidding war/offer for publication
- Publishing schedule set
- Published
There are other ways people can get published, depending on the subject matter, genre etc, but for anyone who’s written something, this would be the traditional way of going about it.
It’s a path filled with obstacles, frustrations, rejections and tears. But every successful writer, from King to Rowling, has gone through it.
And then you’ve got this:
On the one hand, it does present writers with an opportunity to get their work out there. And there have been plenty of success stories as far as self publishing is concerned (like Robin Sharma’s Monk who sold his Ferrari). But for the vast majority of people going down this road, it’s very likely to end in doom.
Without being vetted by an industry professional, aspiring writers will never know if their work is really cut out for a wider audience. Or if they’re just wasting their time writing something that will never actually hit shelves. Or in the case above, devices.
My personal take on this is that I’d much rather test myself in the arena where champions are forged. I’ll keep pushing for representation and hope that whoever does take me on as a client will champion my work until it gets published. That would be far more satisfying than uploading my books and having an AI convert them into audiobooks within seconds to be sold for lunch meat.
My final verdict
It shouldn’t be about whether or not AI is good or bad. It’s more about what are we doing with it? Are we using it as a tool, or is it becoming a crutch? Are we using it responsibly?
I still think the technology isn’t fully realised and wouldn’t 100% put my faith in it. But if there’s ever a time that it can predict a natural disaster with close to 100% accuracy. Or detect illness before it’s too late. Then I’m all for it. As for creativity, please Elon and co, stay the fuck away from our domain.
If you want to read more about AI and the Pro-Human Assembly, I invite you to check out this report on Bill Crandall’s blog.
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