This essay falls under a growing category I call "start off sounding like you agree with critics of GenAI, then subtly attempt to undercut all of the power of their arguments."
The best way to engage with these sorts of articles is to completely ignore all stated advice and move on. There is no "separation of moving things on the job vs. moving things at the gym" when it comes to creative craft, the entire analogy is completely absurd.
> There is no "separation of moving things on the job vs. moving things at the gym" when it comes to creative craft...
- Coming up with names for cities in a role-playing game you're making - Summarizing an idea that you're writing about - Doing research for an article - Brainstorming character names - Creating an aesthetic for a new website for a customer - Etc, etc.
I could go on for days with these examples. And so could any AI.
Pre-2022 ALL these were done 100% by a human.
Now they're not. Now creative people are using AI to help them massively with tons of these. So, yes, the separation needs to happen there as well.
For example, maybe you say, I'll never use AI to help me name characters. Or to come up with plot lines. Or whatever.
That's a Gym vs. Job distinction.
"Now they're not." ???
For me, there isn't the slightest difference from before 2022 and after 2022, since I continually choose to boycott genAI services, and as an activist in the Pro-Craft movement, encourage others to do the same.
Yes, I could tell. : )
You do realize that the entire point of the post is to be cautious of AI, right?
And to make sure that you have your own personal goals separate from it, and that if you're getting help from it you need to make sure it's in line with those goals.
Right?
What about that do you disagree with?
I disagree with your insinuation that being creative with your mind as a human being is a form of recreation or personal growth or whatever (working out at the gym) whereas "creativity" on behalf of work projects gets done by Big Tech's generative algorithms. It becomes even more confusing because then later on you say "I inevitably will use AI to do many of these Gym tasks" …huh? So now even the creative "gym tasks" are done by AI too? Apparently our personal goals will shrink to a freakishly tiny little list by the end zone of your thought experiment!