Generative AI and My Lived Experience

Building this site and interacting with ChatGPT day after day has driven home a simple truth. Generative AI is far from perfect. It produces wrong answers and often behaves in ways I did not expect. At least for now, it is not something that can immediately stand in for humans.

Yet it is equally true that ideas once held back by lack of knowledge, time, or effort now have a much better chance of becoming reality. I can move ahead on my own without relying on anyone else. Yes, I rely on generative AI, but the sense of “I can do this by myself” is profound.

The Risk of Not Using It

This shift means a great deal to individuals and companies alike. Choosing not to use generative AI will almost certainly leave you far behind. Just as with the internet or smartphones, whether you can harness generative AI will become a new form of literacy that determines competitiveness.

History shows that innovations like electricity, automobiles, and the internet eliminated those who hesitated to adopt them. Generative AI is likely to follow the same path. Failing to ride this wave could cost individuals and organizations dearly.

A New Kind of Unease

At the same time, a different type of anxiety is growing. If everyone can easily make so many things real, what is meaningful to pursue?

Many accomplishments had value precisely because they were difficult—because they required specialized knowledge or enormous effort. Now, with generative AI, nearly anyone can produce software, prose, or designs at a decent level. How much value will remain in the things “anyone can now do”? That question is heavy.

The Fear of Creativity Being Flattened

Put differently, as AI takes over mundane work, creativity and originality also become “something anyone can display to some degree.” That raises a fear that everyone except a tiny global elite will struggle to show creativity at all, leaving their very sense of significance to fade.

Rather than AI replacing everything, it may generalize even the domains we once thought uniquely human, leaving only a sliver of room to stand out. That is the doubt that comes packaged with generative AI’s convenience.

Lingering Doubts

For me, these doubts are still unresolved. There is no question that generative AI is already shaking the foundations of how we live and work. That is why questions like “How should we use AI?” and “Where do humans fit in the AI era?” may become the dilemmas and sources of worry that define our times.

Generative AI is not an enemy; it is a tool for extending ourselves. Yet it also shakes the meaning of our values and effort.

How will you interpret this change?