Originally I titled this post ‘AI = Not Interested’ but I realised that is not really my state of mind. I am somewhat interested. I am not dismissive of the discourse. 

There is something happening. I’ve enjoyed Tom’s experiments and Doug’s folk software (a term he introduced me to that I prefer over the slightly icky ‘vibe coding’.) It reminds me of an era in the open web where all the RSS and APIs and things like Yahoo Pipes meant people were always spinning up little personal pieces of software. We lost that web a long time ago and maybe it is the nostalgia that has me seeing the good in this element of AI but I do at least find it intriguing and have even played a little in that sandbox in the past.

Also while I acknowledge, and have witnessed, everything Rachel points out in this post about the risks of AI notetaking I have started to find that helpful – especially the summaries that Co-Pilot spits out. This might be circumstance specific – I missed a lot of meetings with my health problems – and you can’t take any of them totally at face value…and they all still struggle with my broad Bristolian…but it has been something I have found increasingly useful.

Plus I have definitely used these tools (I do personally pay for a Claude account and Co-Pilot is all over us at work) to just do some more admin-y tasks for me that I could probably automate some other way – or, horror of horrors, just do manually – but it is easier to just write a prompt or two and point Claude at a doc or a list or something that I need transforming in some time consuming but simple manner.

Oh and I agree that the whole ‘agentic AI’ thing definitely has the potential to make things interesting (in that made up Chinese curse kind of way) especially for (transactional) public services. We/they definitely are not ready if even a portion of the proposed functionality genuinely emerges at scale.

So I am somewhat inclined and professionally, of course, I must feign a certain amount of interest. All product management is somewhat AI product management these days so I can’t, and don’t, turn a blind eye to it.

With all that said though the majority of the time it doesn’t even cross my mind to consider AI in my work or life.

I have zero interest in AI writing for me. The idea that writing is thinking is pretty well established. Writing is also feeling and reflecting. It is how I make sense of the world beyond just work – but it is a massive part of how I add value in my career (or at least that is what I tell myself!). The idea that Copilot is going to produce my papers or slidedecks fills me with horror. The act of identifying the narrative and finding the way to tell that story in the best way to land it with the audience is something that provides me with a real sense of achievement.

Now I am not telling anyone else what to do – I know some people find writing hard in the same way that I find maths terrifying. You do you. 

Then again I did find myself enjoying this quote from otherwise annoying stoner Seth Rogen;

“I don’t understand what it’s supposed to do,” Rogen said when asked about AI in filmmaking. “Every time I see a video on Instagram that’s like, ‘Hollywood is cooked,’ what follows is the most stupid dog shit I’ve ever seen in my life. And if your instinct is to use AI and not go through that process. You shouldn’t be a writer. Because you’re not writing.”

AI generated graphic ‘art’ also just gives me the ick. Especially all those horrible posters springing up everywhere. Great art, and design, has personality. Passion. It is about details and depth.  

Also what the fuck have they done to search! I’m trying DuckDuckGo and Kagi at the moment because, bloody hell, I want to just be able to find the reference I am looking for not some half baked guess at the answer based on the Wikipedia entry (but not as thorough as the Wikipedia entry!). 

Oh and the whole ‘deep fake’ thing – in fact all those AI videos, even the cute animals on trampolines, is just disturbing. 

Anyway some of this is, I am sure, an age thing. I am 53 years old now and have been horribly online for just shy of 30 years. Additionally some of it is the fallout of just how bad things got a couple of months ago with my health. The cliche that I am, I find myself increasingly in my ‘life’s too short’ era. 

This is where the ‘ain’t inclined’ really kicks in. I don’t want to spend my free time reading about, learning about or experimenting with AI. I want to look at more art, read more science fiction (without AI as a plot device) and comics, eat more street food, visit more countries, watch more movies at the cinema, attend more conferences that are not remotely work related. Oh and I want to blog about it all. Without the help of AI.

Even at work, where it is harder to avoid, I don’t want to spend my days trying to fit AI into my workflow or products. I want to build teams, coach colleagues, help them achieve their goals, do the kind of glue work that can be seen as career limiting for those with remaining ambition but perfect for village elders…and then  blog about it all. Without the help of AI.

I suspect you can teach old dogs new tricks…but they have to want to engage.

I just ain’t inclined.