I have a confession to make: I strongly considered using Artificial intelligence to write this blog for me. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to write about and the prospect of using AI to not only generate ideas but also write about them was alluring. This led me to ponder the differences between AI-generated content and human-generated content. “Why shouldn’t I use AI to write this blog?” I asked myself. 

Chat GPT is just an amalgamation of various different voices and sources scrubbed from the internet. But are we not, as humans, just an amalgamation of all the things we have heard and experienced in our life up to this point filtered through our current state of consciousness? I rebut my own internal question with a resounding “no”.

The thing that distinguishes us from the robots in this arena is that “spark of creativity” as I will call it here. This spark is the ability to generate a completely new idea seemingly out of thin air. It’s the spark that is responsible for pushing innovation forward in all fields of study. The spark is what hit me when my contemplation on the difference between AI and human generated content took me to a place deeper than my reactive surface level thoughts.

It is my belief that there is this deep place of infinite creativity within all of us. There is this latent creative energy dwelling within us that wants to express itself. What we do with our individual art forms is develop a channel for this creativity to flow through us. Think of it like a reservoir of fresh drinking water below the ground’s surface. How you get the water up to the surface and what you do with it is up to you.

Many artists and athletes (who are also artists in their own way) describe that flow state, where everything seems to be going in slow motion and their actions are so effortless and perfect that it is as if they are one with the activity. This is what happens when a channel is developed enough, and a task is engaging enough to warrant flow through that creative channel. The flow state is the extreme end of the spectrum, the fulfillment of that spark of creativity: a full fledged fire of creativity.

AI will never have access to this spark of creativity, at least, the “weak” AI that we utilize today will never have access. If human beings only had the ability to generate ideas in the way that Chat GPT can, our creative advancement and progress would  be stunted or halted altogether. Revolutionary ideas such as Einstein’s theory of relativity or Ed Witten’s M theory would never have been possible. These creative thoughts require a human being’s creative spark to rise to the surface from wherever that deep level of creativity resides.

I don’t want this to sound like I am railing against the use of AI here (literally raging against the machine.) With the advent of AI taking over certain time consuming, monotonous tasks, I can easily picture a world where many people are given the freedom of being able to cultivate their own creative channel and harness that spark. There are systemic changes that would need to take place in order to allow this freedom, but let’s save that for another blog. Instead, imagine a world where people are more strongly encouraged to explore and express their inner creativity. Our purpose then becomes intrinsically to find our own spark and let it flow through us.

I believe the reason for our creative endeavors should be to first feel the fulfillment of creating something that came from you. To enjoy the spark as it manifests itself through your individual channel. Find that spark within yourself and do what it is you do to allow it to express itself. Although using Chat GPT to write this blog may have saved me some time and energy, I’m glad I chose to write it and express this idea that was dormant within me. Not only because in reading this, you are reading a part of me, but also because my life has found just a little bit more purpose than it had previously. Thanks for reading.