My beef with AI

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I’m sure most of my generation, and perhaps even millennials or simply those who are not “techies,” may occasionally get confused by the changes happening in the digital world — especially with the advent of Artificial Intelligence or AI that is now even affecting how we draft our messages or stories, how we pay for subscriptions, make online purchases and much more.

Well, as a journalist, I am truly irritated by the intrusiveness of AI in drafting my articles, especially in predictive typing.

I am also sometimes surprised and confused by changes in automatic payments that catch me off guard and make me fear I’m being scammed, since I never authorized such payments.

Even as I write this column, I had to delete an almost completed draft just because a predictive text that I have been trying to repeatedly delete keeps on reinstalling itself into my draft.

I actually sent feedback that AI should be made optional in drafting messages, especially for professional writers like myself who are used to the creative process that is a work in progress and has to be continually revised even up to the last minute of editing, and even sometimes up to the actual layout before printing.

AI is a convenient tool for those who have difficulty in writing, but not for the true thinkers whose thoughts flow much better as they write or type out their manuscripts, letters, essays or articles.

It is complicated to explain to an ordinary person, pretty much like explaining how a song is composed or how a dance naturally flows, or how a song is interpreted by a singer, giving it more depth and elevating the performance. It simply cannot be explained or dictated. Sometimes, the magic lasts only for that one brief moment and cannot be repeated.

Thus, the same sometimes happens in writing, when inspiration and thoughts flow together and the words flow out like a fast-flowing river.

The thing is, a dirty manuscript is still easily edited and polished, and even refined. That is why there are editors who can check for errors and even polish the manuscript.

But battling with an intrusive AI really bums out the writer and wrecks the creative process, and sometimes in the heat or irritation of the moment, the delete button is pressed and poof! the draft is gone! Whut?!!

At other times, we are stuck, at a loss for words, and with ideas that we can’t seem to properly describe... stilted, forced, lost at times.

And it is at those times that AI can come in handy. Unfortunately, AI depends on a massive collection of data, of written text, and thus may even offer something close to repetition, tweaked here and there to avoid direct plagiarism.

The dependence on digital transactions is also an irritant to me at times, especially when one is not given enough time to review the financial transaction or the time to scrutinize and perhaps do necessary manual or mental transactions or verifications.

In fact, reversing digital transactions is sometimes even more difficult than reviewing physical financial transactions. This is often the case in online transactions, specifically online shopping when you view the perfectly photographed product or dress on a perfectly sized model with the proper lighting, but alas upon receiving the actual product, you soon find out it is nothing near to what you saw online or does not even fit you or is not what was promised in the promotional material.

That is why I like to shop in brick-and-mortar stores — to see the product, see it in both natural and artificial light, to stroke it and feel it against my skin, perhaps even smell it for any off-smelling chemicals or dyes, and actually try it on if it suits or complements me, or is actually not suited for me.

Thus, relying on online purchases and realizing that what you bought is not what you envisioned is when the nightmare begins — the refund and return process for wrong or defective products. There is a strict protocol to follow from the moment you receive and open the item; otherwise, the return may be invalidated, you lose the promotional price you paid, and you end up going back to a brick-and-mortar store to buy the same product at a higher price.

The same goes for digital subscriptions, which if you fail to scroll and read the voluminous fine print, may result in an unexpected renewal at a much higher price than you had originally agreed to.

Oh, I miss the days when I had the time to study and peruse the fine details and study other options before purchasing or buying anything. One can delay the purchase, do repeated visits before finally committing to the purchase.

Impulse purchases, of course, still happened, but it was also much easier to do returns or cancel an order.

Digital purchases are so much quicker and convenient, but returning an item simply because you realized you overspent or do not really need the item or had previously bought the same item leads to the inconvenience of shipping back the unwanted purchase and requesting for a refund.

I now rest my case with this column, which began as a draft on another topic but kept getting derailed by predictive texting that irritated the hell out of me, made me lose my train of thought, and somehow led to this final topic, that, miraculously, AI did not interfere with.