No Real Winners

The debacle with all the AIs reminds me of the social media fights in the early 2000s. In the end, we the people lost and the corporate giants won. If you're unfamiliar — Facebook, MySpace, Friendster — they were all on top of their game at different moments. But similar to today's AI battles, the big corporate types forced us, the users, to pick sides. And well, one eventually won. But we, the users, were the real losers.

I use AI. Like many people, it helps me stay organized. I help run a bakery on Guam. I also run another bakery with my partners, mostly online, but things still need to be done. On top of that I have my creative work — shoots, two YouTube channels, two blogs, and several platforms. For context, this doesn't mean I create brand-new material for every outlet. Each platform has its purpose and they all feed into each other. AI helps me organize, schedule, and create. I go to one AI with a rough outline of something I've written and it helps me with the writeup and checks grammar. I go to another to help me strategize. A third one holds my schedule and keeps things in order.

Why do I use all three? Because I've experimented — with numbers, with artwork, with creative writing, with coding — and I've come to understand what each one does best. Like any team, there will always be someone stronger at one task than another. Rather than forcing one tool to do everything, it makes more sense to use several.

Imagine forcing someone to do a task they just don't understand. But give them numbers and they're miracle workers. Would you rather have several members on your team giving you the very best each can offer? Or one single member doing everything, but some of it mediocre?

Right now I think we're missing the bigger picture, and I can see it plain as day. We're being forced — the actual users, the beneficiaries of these tools — to pick sides. But I can't pick sides. It's like asking if I have a favorite child. Some parents might. But for a few of us, there are no favorites. Each one is unique.

Maybe that's the point. Maybe that's why I feel so strongly about all this.

I come from an artist's point of view. Drawing with pencil or charcoal will never be exactly like photography, or painting with oils. Each produces something different, even when trying to capture the same beautiful sunset.

And sadly, I think the sun is quietly setting on our ability to make those choices for ourselves.