The other day I clicked on a headline that was presented to me on the default home page for my browser. It was something like, “This is the best hike in Washington.”
The article that it took me to was crap. So much for AI generated content. While it did name the trail, it gave its location as something south of the border with British Columbia and north of Mt. Rainier. Which like saying Oregon is located south of Canada and north of Mexico. Accurate, but not all that helpful. That went for the rest of the article as well – it had words in it but they weren’t very compelling.
Ever since that ONE click, my home page keeps trying to lure me into similar articles. Things like, “What every hiker needs to know before hitting the trail” and “Top 10 Trails That No One Has Ever Heard Of.”
It’s like a pesky new friend that only knows one thing about me and keeps trying to push that button. It feels desperate.
But it highlights what we know about the Internet – that to get our attention, the algorithms will pigeon-hole us. I frequently see this with my kids– they click on a video about making a watermelon smoothie and then all of a sudden, the app suggests all sorts of watermelon videos. As if oranges, strawberries, and blueberries no longer exist.
It also underscores that AI is not yet all that helpful or useful yet (and I’m paraphrasing some of my friends at Microsoft). So as writers wondering how we harness AI, I’m reminded it requires our creativity to inspire it to create something of value.
It’s all good, as long as we remind ourselves from time to time that there’s a whole wide world out there. Maybe I should turn off the computer and go take a hike.
I’ve published a related post on my personal blog: Emotional Literacy
Please check out these other items of interest:
More about Wynne Leon and her story-telling journey
Workshop about creativity jump start that I delivered with Dr. Vicki Atkinson
Speaking and workshops on leadership through creativity to build resilient teams
Podcast about the how and why of creativity
Articles and corporate creativity resources
Corporate evaluate your team needs for creativity
Individual creativity survey for individuals
My book about my journey to find what fueled my dad’s indelible spark and twinkle can be found on Amazon: Finding My Father’s Faith.
You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @wynneleon
(featured photo from Pexels)