@eduardmsmr

I just finished reading this article by @charlicohen , and I truly believe everyone should read it It’s one of those pieces that hit me deeply because I feel like it articulated something I’ve lived through multiple times in my life For a bit of context, the piece explores how AI isn’t what’s eroding our authenticity as we’ve been slowly giving that away since 2010 I first noticed it in myself when I started using social media more seriously (mostly Instagram) over a decade ago. As a high school teen, I wanted to stand out, to be loved, and most importantly to be seen by those around me. And this made me start viewing my life through the lens of how it would appear to others “By the time Instagram Stories launched, we had already optimised our lives for documentation. More than that, we had optimised our aspirations.” Charli puts it perfectly That was me. And even today, despite being aware of this optimisation, I still catch myself slipping, thinking about the algorithm, about what might perform, and far less about what actually feels true to me Then, toward the end of 2022, I started exploring ChatGPT and taking AI more seriously after realizing the impact it could have on my personal life, let alone our collective one. And after a while, I noticed the same pattern emerging I was shaping my thoughts for the machine, formatting ideas for better outputs or thinking in structures the model could work with Charli, again, describes this perfectly: “Every time we correct our prompt, AI is training us how to think our thoughts. Where we once spent five minutes critically thinking, soon we might spend four of those minutes critically formatting.” After that realization, I decided to make a choice Instead of allowing these tools to replace my thinking and sense of self, I decided to use them as an extension of it I started posting what I felt like posting, the way I felt like doing it. With AI, I began using it to amplify what was already mine, to understand how it works, and mould it around my own thinking, rather than allowing myself to be moulded by it Despite this I still catch myself slipping. And when I do, I pause and try to understand why. I don’t think this can be a permanent fix in today’s society. at least not yet I want everyone reading this to read Charli’s article. You may realize, as I did, that the real issue has never been the technology but how easily we hand ourselves over to it By the end of the article, you’ll likely be haunted by the same question I am: “What even is our authentic self anymore?”🌹 https://open.substack.com/pub/charlicohen/p/can-we-think-for-ourselves-anymore?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

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