My Love-Hate Relationship with AI

Once I arrived back in school to pursue my master’s degree, it became crystal clear that the world is changing, and learning to use AI is the only way to keep up in the current marketing environment. I have serious issues with that: AI consumes a lot of resources (mainly, water and electricity) and data centers become a blight upon whatever locale they occupy. I’ve witnessed people turning to AI for everything from daily minutiae to legal advice and therapy. Just writing that makes me cringe! It’s like people are content with echo chambers telling them what they want to hear and don’t know how to do actual research anymore, much less their own writing. Harumph, I say.

OK, I’m hopping off my soapbox now. Because the thing is, despite all the (to me) horrors I just outlined, I’m discovering that it really can be a useful tool, if you don’t abuse it. I still prefer to Google whatever I can. But sometimes, AI can bring up a specific example of something that would take a lot of drilling down on Google to get to, if ever. I’ve used it to give me ideas for my parts of group projects. (That’s ideas, a jumping-off point, not the entirety of the project.) I’ve asked it to identify keywords for me to work into my resume and cover letter to help me get past the (also AI) Applicant Tracking Systems that so many employers use now to screen job seekers before a human becomes involved. That’s keywords for my specific resume, based on a specific job posting. Google can’t get that customized.

I’ve found this graphic that I thought succinctly summarized the positive and negative ways to use AI. (But I do take exception to having AI write a first draft; it’s too tempting to become lazy and just rely on what the AI comes up with.)

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So, what’s my relationship status with AI? “It’s complicated.”

What are your thoughts about AI and its uses?