You need to have a talk with AI
Why copying and magical prompts don’t work (and what to do instead).
2009, Facebook felt different. It felt weird.
I couldn’t understand why on earth I would need to connect, on the internet, with people I already knew in real life. I didn’t want anyone to stalk me, and I sure wasn’t looking for yet another way to get live updates on what people ate.
Twitter was enough for that at the time.
Also, I was coming at it from the glory days of MySpace, which for the Gen Zs out there, was Facebook, Instagram, and (nobody would probably admit it) Tinder, all in one.
You could do so much. Have your playlist, your profile image, your nickname, your photos and bio – and others could comment on your wall.
Sounds familiar?
If you thought about Facebook you’re right. So if Facebook was so similar, why did it feel so alien at the same time?
Anything new feels uncomfortable at first.
Like the shiny new handcrafted leather boots you wanted for so long. They’ll need time and use to break in.
Or your new workout routine. Your muscles will scream in agony for an entire week after.
But anything new that is also good, gradually seeps in.
Those worn-out boots will look damn good after some time.
And you’ll feel amazing crushing PRs at the gym week after week.
When it comes to Facebook, eventually a lot of people started liking it. The platform grew 640 million users in the 3 years after. You knew it got a hold when your mom started using it and acting like a teenager all over again.
Yes, it was another social platform. So what has made it age so well, when MySpace was the same exact thing but ended up dying a slow death? MySpace wasn’t the first one either. Remember Friendster? Few do, and for good reasons. It didn’t stick around for long.
What set Facebook apart was its ability to adapt and improve on existing ideas.
From the get go Facebook was exclusive, had a distinctive user interface, a unique “news feed” and the incredible ability to connect you with people you knew in real life.
But It didn't reinvent the wheel; it took ideas that already existed and refined them.
It took creating profiles, connecting with friends, and sharing status updates from MySpace.
It took the news feed from blogs and Twitter.
It took the Like button from Digg and FriendFeed.
It took check-ins from Foursquare.
It took stories from Snapchat.
And on, and on.
Zuckerberg was able to "steal" the best of what worked, and integrate it into his own vision. Setting a new standard for what social media could be.
Today, we have a new thief in town and it’s called AI.
And you start seeing this narrative crop up a lot: “ChatGPT, Midjourney, and all generative AI products train themselves by stealing the work of artists, without their consent.”
Well my friend, any good artist started out copying the masters. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and many more did it. It’s the way they learned and how they created their own style/identity.
So when someone says the problem is AI copying the style of popular artists, I call BS. The real problem is people asking AI to copy, lured in by a mass hysteria case of “magical prompting”.
“Prompts are shared as if they were magical incantations, rather than regular software code. And even if we do learn some rules, systems are evolving in complex ways that mean that any understanding is temporary” - Ethan Mollick
Copying others and regurgitating prompts shouldn't be your goal. The ultimate goal should be to learn how to use prompts so you can have a conversation with AI.
For example, I use ChatGPT to give me copy edit suggestions, and to help me with research and analysis.
That’s how you should use it. Not to copy ideas, but to get new ones.
Learn to see ideas as an energetic life form, as author Elizabeth Gilbert says:
“Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner. It is only through a human's efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual.”
Collaborating with AI allows us, for the first time, to brainstorm unlimited ideas outside of our comfort zone. We can tap into the entire body of knowledge on the internet and get answers to any questions – in seconds.
Use AI to access the ether and act as your “idea catcher”.
Then talk to it to build upon these ideas.
Yes, talk to it, have an actual conversation. Don’t use it as mere task completer, but as creative collaborator. When I realized I could just “have a chat”, like you would with a friend over coffee, that’s when it clicked for me.
From that moment, the only limit became my imagination.
The same way we write better by getting feedback and an outside perspective from other people, we can get better ideas and push them further when we talk to ChatGPT.
If you’re still on the fence or are scared about it, give it a shot.
No need to get fancy. Are you facing a challenging situation at work? Having a hard time sticking to a habit? Ask it for advice. Be specific in the feedback you need. Take it step by step and learn from each and every reply. So you can ask a better question next time.
You’ll quickly see that ChatGPT doesn’t need you to be “perfect” either. It understands what you mean. In that way it’s very human. Which is what makes it easy to talk to.
And sure, go ahead, ask it to copy… but then dig deeper.
Take what you get and make it your own.
P.S. I just asked ChatGPT to give me feedback on this essay: “Here's my essay. Does it flow well? Is it personal, observational and playful enough? Is there anything confusing, repetitive, interesting, boring, or surprising?”. Sure enough I’ve gotten pretty solid tips on how to make it better. Hence why you’re reading my 3rd version not the first.