Why AI Keeps Me Up at Night

Like most freelance writers, I feel some trepidation about how generative AI will affect my business. I’d be foolish to think the technology will not change how I work with my customers.

However, that’s not why AI concerns me. I have not lost any clients or seen a decline in assignments due to AI. I’m confident that although my role will evolve, my ability to provide value will remain.

So, I don’t fear generative AI rendering me obsolete personally, but I do worry about its consequences on a broader scale.

The Scary Stuff

Generative AI is driving humans to mistrust other humans and legitimate sources of information. With far too many bad characters using AI to carry out their schemes of fraud and deception, we have no choice but to become more wary, skeptical, and suspicious.

• Is the voice on the other end of the phone call really your client who needs to confirm your bank routing and checking account numbers so they can pay you?
• Is the article you’re reading — the one about the prognoses and treatments for a health condition your daughter was just diagnosed with — written (or at least reviewed) by a living, breathing expert in the field?
• Is the fundraising video featuring the heartbreaking plight of a family in need authentic?
• Were the product reviews for the high-end recliner you’ve had your eye on written by real customers?

AI has blazed the trail to a modern-day wild, wild west. We find ourselves exposed in this harsh environment, knowing that it’s a matter of when — not if — a virtual outlaw will storm our village, take us hostage, and steal our horses. Unfortunately, our fear of getting duped will make us less trusting of people who genuinely want to help us or who need our help.

The Death Knell for Celebrating Creativity

Generative AI will lessen our appreciation of creative works. No matter how stunning the artwork, riveting the novel, or captivating the movie script, if it was crafted solely from prompts fed into a generative AI tool, there’s no one to be impressed with. Moreover, will we continue to value the talent put into human-created works, knowing that AI has the same capabilities?

Efficiency at Everyone’s Expense

And while generative AI may enable us to craft an email, plan a trip, and brainstorm names for our new pets super fast, we’ll need to jump through increasingly more hoops to log into our digital accounts. If the unthinkable happens to us and our significant others or children need to access our online accounts, they will have their work cut out for them as they attempt to navigate the various two-factor and multi-factor authentication methods we’ve set up.

Of course, the elephant in the room — What will everyone do for a living when AI takes over? — is growing to enormity.

When AI takes over every administrative, customer service, and creative function, where will people work? Companies under pressure to reduce overhead and maximize profits will have no choice but to incorporate generative AI into their operations, laying off humans in the process.

Of course, AI needs human oversight, but that will diminish over time. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into businesses in all industries, fewer humans will be needed in the workforce.

Without jobs, will the government pay us to merely exist? Will our brains turn to mush because we will have to think for ourselves less and less?

THESE are the things about AI that keep me up at night.

What concerns do you have?