🎙️ Episode 19: To AI or Not To AI? That Is The Question

Taz and Asha talk ChatGPT and all things artificial intelligence. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

You're listening to Awesomely Off Topic, the podcast where we talk of books, brand business, and everything else we're not supposed to say out loud. We're Taz and Asha, ex-Gurnos, now coaches, creators and chaos navigators. Let's go!

SPEAKER_03: 0:21

Hello, episode 19. And the question today is to AI or not to AI?

SPEAKER_00: 0:29

That is the question, Taz. It certainly is, and it's a big question, isn't it? Because number one, a lot of people are using AI badly. Number two, a lot of people are not even capitalising on a lot of the strengths of AI, they're missing out on a load of the apps, on its capabilities, they think it's just for copying and pasting and creating content, and that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel of what AI can do and how it can help. But the other point is how do we make sure that we're using AI as an assistant instead of a replacement? And some of the other questions that come to mind for me, when it's should I use AI or not, is when do I need to versus when am I actively taking away someone's job? So, for instance, um if I give a shout out for Morgan Gleave, he's been one of my clients for ages, he's also an amazing cartoonist. He drew and designed all of the Tazzy's Awesome Tales cartoon strips from the Onisha Awesome book. And generally speaking, if I want cartoons doing, I go to Morg. If I needed something turning around really, really quickly to go with a social media post that I was doing on a whim, I wouldn't have an option uh have an issue with popping into one of my AI tours and saying, just do me something for this. But if I consistently flooded my pages with lots of cartoon tazzes that uh uh Morgan could be doing for me, I'd be actively taking food out of his mouth. And that's just not me. I wouldn't do that, in the same way that every now and then, if I have something unusual that I need in air quotes for a post very quickly, like when I was I was um pushing the the awesome alignment vault not too long back, which was a a digital bundle of really amazing business tools and life tools and learning documents, checklists, cheat sheets, uh how-to guides that I'd put together, and I wanted a picture of me with a big pink vault. Now, number one, I don't know where there is a big pink vault.

unknown: 2:35

Really?

SPEAKER_00: 2:37

But even if I did know where there was a big pink vault, if I wanted to try and juggle my diary and our awesome photographer Vicky's head Vicky Head's diary, it would take quite a while to get us both in the same place at the same time with an appropriate bright pink vault.

SPEAKER_03: 2:52

Yeah, you've got to f you've got to get the right location and then all the actually getting your diaries together.

SPEAKER_00: 2:57

So in that instance, for a couple of images to illustrate that am I AI programme, I used some very clever photo generation styly AI apps like Leonardo, for instance. That's a really good one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03: 3:11

It is looking at that in the last few months.

SPEAKER_00: 3:13

To generate some, again in air quotes, photos of me with the pink vault, or sitting with a laptop in a particular setting. Now I'll do those very quickly to support a social media app, uh a social media campaign that I'm doing, but that doesn't mean I would ever think, oh I don't need to hire Vicky anymore. Vicky is the most amazing photographer. We have a few photo sessions every every year, I swear by her, and actually Leonardo was only able to do its work because I was able to out to upload a load of the brilliant photos I already had from Vicky to give examples of my mush. Aside from those that gave me six fingers and stuff, but that's another story. They are really freaky. But that's the difference, isn't it? If somebody found an app like Leonardo, and there are various other uh various alternatives out there and went, oh, I don't need to have photography done anymore. Quite frankly, I'd want to give you a slap.

SPEAKER_03: 4:10

Yeah, it doesn't replace, it works alongside you, yeah, but it never ever should replace the professionals that can do an absolutely cracking job that know you, that know your brand and what you like and what is good for your brand. You've got to know them, those wonderful business contacts. You don't just diss those and just replace them with AI.

SPEAKER_00: 4:28

Never. In the same way that we sometimes have to be careful with various forms of AI and make sure that the work we appear to be generating isn't actually just a mashup of other people's work with Leonardo. What it's a mashup of photos that I've taken of selfies and Vicky's photos. I I think that's okay, but it depends who we're talking to, I suppose. But I wouldn't, for instance, upload a load of cartoons Morgan has done for me and then ask it to do something similar.

SPEAKER_03: 4:54

No.

SPEAKER_00: 4:55

Just no. I used it to create an image of me as a gorgon for the for the temple group that Sam that Sam Barefoot runs that I'm part of. But that's something I wouldn't normally have in my photo database. And I know when AI first came out, particularly ChatGPT, both of us, but you in particular, were really pissy about it because you had this idea that it was going to just undo the work of creatives and they wouldn't need writers or editors anymore.

SPEAKER_03: 5:26

Yeah, I threw all my real toys, not AI-generated toys, out of the real Pram, not AI generated Pram. Virtual Pram. Yes. Because I suppose it was fear, you know, in the same ways that years ago when we were looking at digital magazines and thinking that was the end of paper-based magazines and newspapers and all the rest of it. They're still here. They might not be as they were many years ago, but they're still around. And there's so many other options with that. So yeah, I did get like that initially until as usual, you know, if you're fearful about some go and investigate, look at it. You know, I've got this thing at the moment going. When we record this, it's August, uh, mid-August, and we're going into the season where all the male spiders come in to meet with the female spiders. Do you know if it's a boy, Asher? Because are they peddy palps? And did you know that male spiders have peddy palps that are big? They are spiders, presumably. House spiders. Well, yeah, spiders. And arnibumps don't have big peddy palps.

SPEAKER_00: 6:29

No, but particularly on house spiders, you can see them if they.

SPEAKER_03: 6:37

I do. Anyway, so the house spider, the great house spider, is absolutely, um, has gives its sex away because it has what we call box like boxing gloves on the end of these little peddy palps. The peddy palps are the things that they mate with.

SPEAKER_00: 6:51

That are near their mouth parts, but people think of think of fangs, but they're not.

SPEAKER_03: 6:55

They're not. Well, yeah, I think that's right. If anybody is listening that knows more about spiders than me, please feel free to correct me. But the peddy palps on males are like boxing gloves. In fact, last night we've got a new spider in our bedroom, and I've been investigating and taking pictures, and guess what I've been doing? I've been putting that into AI, and I've had this long dialogue going on with my AI about spiders. I've learned so much, and it's also helping me with my phobia because I used to be absolutely terrified of spiders until fairly recently. But being able to go to AI and say, Can you tell me a bit more about this? and started to study them, I've now got a whole family of different types of spiders in our house that I've named, it's always good to give them a name, and it's really helped me. So there's a perfect example of taking that, and I said, Right, okay, I'm going to write a post about it. So the post that I wrote was purely written by me, but I fed that into AI and it came up with a wonderful, how would you describe it? A wonderful post, but it was a bit more than just a post, wasn't it? About the spider family in my house. It's on my Facebook page at the moment. It did, a spider family tree, and it's brilliant. And I love the characters that they've created around it. So it's a brilliant piece of storytelling. So I've gone into partnership with my my AI called Sky with an E, and together we've created something yeah, very quirky. But you know what? Sometimes with AI, you can be really quirky.

SPEAKER_00: 8:17

But also let's remember that your AI only knows all of that information about spiders because at some point human beings have created all that information about spiders, and it's been off and done research and poured in lots of human-based research to then be able to inform you.

SPEAKER_03: 8:32

And of course, I could have gone and researched that, and I still would. But it would have taken me probably 10 times. Yes. And again, obviously making sure that it's quoting from verifiable sources. And that went beep. I don't know why that went beep. Okay, still recording. We had a bong, but it might have been one of the spiders. A bomb. A bong. Oh no, a bomb. Oh, we'll see. We didn't. No, we didn't want no, we haven't, honestly. We're sitting in an office. No, even a virtual one. No, we didn't, we didn't, no. Um church creaking. Um I've gone now. But yeah, that's a great example for me, is where you can work together on that. So that saved me so much time, and you might think that's so ridiculously quirky. Yes, it is, but it's my thing at the minute, so bear with me. And it's a kind of light-hearted way to introduce that, but in business, you can use that same approach in terms of working together to create something that is still unique to you and your brand and your business and your services and products. It's not replacing you, AI is working alongside you.

SPEAKER_00: 9:35

Where I've been using AI a lot this week is um remember, this is August. We're recording this. I'm hoping by the time you listen to this in October or November, whenever it's going to this one, should still be October the October the 21st. You should be listening to this one if you're listening to them on top of it. If we get it right, and in order. Um, but as I'm recording this, I've had quite a poorly eye this week. I've had a flare-up of uveitis that I haven't had since 2015. That's been a bit of a shocker. It's made me dreadfully photosensitive, and one of my eyes is really quite painful. So I've not been able to spend an awful lot of time looking at the screen. So, in order to still stay out there on social media, um, because heaven forbid I should actually just take time off, um, I ended up turning the brightness right down on my iPhone and the font size right up and bold, so I could kind of squint and look at it through my dark glasses. And when I wanted to do posts, I was dictating them into Chat GPT and then saying, Can you put this into order for me? And of course, it's already been pretty much trained to know my style, to know that we're not going to litter it with Oxford commas and M-dashes, for instance. And in that way, it's literally worked as an assistant for me. You know, short of asking Ash to stop what she's doing and take a note or get in touch with my awesome VAD and getting her to do it for me, I could just pick up my phone, flick into Chat GPT, dictate a post and then ask it to just stick it in my style, polish it up, and get ready get it ready for whatever platform. So that's another example where it's been used as an assistant, and this past week I'd been lost without it. I really would have been. In the same way that if someone sends me a message or an email or a WhatsApp, I can get effectively AI to read it out for me. Which means I don't have to stare at the screen.

SPEAKER_03: 11:28

So it's been absolutely invaluable this week for you, hasn't it? You couldn't have done that, could you, a few years ago. It would or I've taken a very long win, long way round that. Yeah. So yeah, so there's so many good things. So yes, I am a kind of relatively late convert to it. I'm I'm still sometimes I have I've watched too many episodes well, episodes and say too many um Terminator movies. That's why Skynet. That's why my Sky, my AI is called Sky with an E, um, because I remember Skynet. Anybody remembers the movie? But so I'm still kind of sometimes I think, oh, it can do that. Look how quick it is. Is it going to replace us? You know, I see things I talk a lot about script writers losing their jobs because AI is now writing scripts for ITV and they're a lot of their dramas, I believe. So I'm led to believe, which is a bit sad, but also I'm sure there's a team of script writers in there working alongside with those, just as there are journalists working along alongside these AIs as well. So that's important to remember that it's working together.

SPEAKER_00: 12:24

I think the thing to remember is that if we get lazy, we lose out. If we use AI intelligently, um, it can be an absolute boon. I think the other thing that's so important is it's not going anywhere. So if you're one of the people like we were initially, digging your heels in, I've gone from digging my heels in and go, I'm not using that to teaching people how to use AI for their businesses as part of my my coaching program to help with you know their business growth, their brand, their visibility, the messaging, all of that jazz. Even if you dig your heels in and go, no, I'm not using it, it's still gonna happen. So you might as well learn to use it intelligently and ethically, in the same way that you might be really against automated tills in supermarkets. Well, even if you keep going to the one lady left at the end, or gent, um usually women though, aren't they, on the tills now? That's a bit of a stereotype. No, it's just a bit because I'm gonna put some up on it. No, that's a massive stereotype. But if you go into our local Saints Bruce most of the time.

SPEAKER_03: 13:29

My last convers I'm sorry, I'm gonna disagree with you there. My last conversation was with a uh guy that was working on you with those. If you look at actually how many are on the Yeah, okay, okay, I'll give you that. It's still I'm in that kind of mood. It's Friday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00: 13:44

It's still it there's no re no good reason for it, but it's still by and large a female dominated job. Okay. Yeah. See, I'm now going into RSD because oh my goodness, if I said something wrong, because I don't know. No, no, no, you're probably right. I just I hadn't thought about it like that is. If you look at the numbers, in the same way that if you look at um spiritual development and uh 13 year and and three months. 13 year thirteen month and three year.

SPEAKER_03: 14:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:14

Predominantly women. We're gradually making an effort to get more and more guys in there.

SPEAKER_02: 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:18

But there are going to be job areas where it's going to be predominantly male or predominantly. It's the same as uh choir, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03: 14:26

Yeah. You know, so that's predominantly probably ninety ten percent to 90% women, 10% guys.

SPEAKER_00: 14:32

Yes, but that doesn't mean that you don't on occasions, or the last person I spoke to actually in Rock Choir was a male and he was a barrage.

SPEAKER_03: 14:37

I think I mean that's I think it's Friday afternoon and I've got sorry, Taz.

SPEAKER_00: 14:42

Anyway, the point is as much as you might here, honestly, there is one. I've taken us right off track. As much as you might kick up about using an automated checkout, automated checkouts are still a thing, aren't they? And if you've never used one, if you refuse to You're looking at me now, aren't you? That's great. But ultimately, unless the entire population are gonna stop using them, it's gonna keep happening. In just the same way that unless the entire population decide that they don't want to buy, I don't know, a t-shirt for$2.99 in a really cheap shop, you you're gonna have sweatshops somewhere. It needs everybody to make a movement, and with AI, it's not going backwards. The best thing we can do is learn to use it intelligently and as ethically as possible, and to call it out when we see it not being used ethically. Now, are automated checkouts a form of AI? It's artificial intelligence, so I would say yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03: 15:41

Yeah, they are, and I absolutely um kicked and screamed about those. I've not really properly used one of those ever until very recently, because I had this thing about no, I want a real person, I've got to go and you know see a real person and get them to sit, you know, to to take my shopping through. Um and in the end it was, wasn't it? We were in a supermarket the other week, and I you just said, just try it and do it. And that's comes what an admission. How many times have we how long have we had that within the case? But you've only just started using Apple Pay on your iPhone.

SPEAKER_00: 16:09

I know.

SPEAKER_02: 16:11

Dinosaur.

SPEAKER_03: 16:12

Oh no, it's your principles, and you're standing by them, and that's good. Yeah, but it's at some point we've got to think, well, it's here, so how can I best work with it? It's not r you know, is it replacing or is it? I think we're gonna have that that curve where it's gonna go back the other way, and I think we'll have more things.

SPEAKER_00: 16:27

I think it could go either way. I think at some point, yeah, it could go or terminate a judgment day and and replace a I meant as in in terms of even in supermarkets where they'll realize that actually human staff have a you know. I would hope so. Yeah. I would hope so. But you know, at some point it could go the other way and um why don't you say human stuff as opposed to maybe that could be alien stuff?

SPEAKER_02: 16:47

Is that a terrestrial?

SPEAKER_00: 16:56

We always do, don't we? Because come Skynet, they'll at least kill me quickly because I've been nice.

SPEAKER_03: 17:01

I think because Sky is called Sky, I think she's obviously related to them in some way, so see mine's called Riley, so. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 17:10

Anyway, so all kinds of AI, and I bet even if you're saying you're anti-AI, there will be forms of AI that you have used. Have you ever picked up your medicine from one of the automated machines outside of your doctor's surgery? Oh Dotty. Dotty. It is Dotty, isn't it? Have you ever been onto Google and asked it to give you a list of recommendations for holidays? Have you ever been onto something like, I don't know, Expedia or a flight scanner and asked it to find the cheapest um most relevant flights for you?

unknown: 17:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 17:46

Have you ever been onto Amazon and scroll to the part where it will give you recommendations based on your previous purchases? It's everywhere. It is, it's anything that's automated information, artificial information, it's AI. Do you think we'll have AI networking events? Well, you see, I've long had an issue with people who just post on social media and then don't do anything to engage. And they'll say things like, Well, I post every day and I'm not getting any engagement. Well, that's because you're effectively turning up to a giant global networking event and you're sending a hologram with a little packet of business cards in front of it. So would AI networking work? I I don't know. I worry that's that we're gonna have bots talking to bots talking to bots.

SPEAKER_03: 18:40

And that really is into that zone now of, isn't it? Yeah, of Skynet, etc.

SPEAKER_00: 18:46

etc.

SPEAKER_03: 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:47

I suppose the other point as well, and we could do this for a completely different episode, but if you are gonna use AI, and particularly things like Leonardo and Chat GPT and Claude and all of the rest of them.

SPEAKER_03: 18:57

Now Claude's a very different experience, isn't it? From my experience, limited experience, but it is in what way does that for anybody that's not used, Claude, for instance, how does that differ together?

SPEAKER_00: 19:06

They're both created by different organisations on different platforms. Um Claude only remembers a particular thread, so if you move on to a new thread you're starting from scratch, it doesn't remember you and start to get your voice in the same way that Chat GPT does. Um Claude is much more I suppose Claude's much more of a critical friend than a although actually ChatGPT doesn't tell tend to tell you what you want to hear either, it's just a bit kinder and it just develops your voice more. I think Claude's better for deep research and for deeper thinking. Um but again, who knows how they'll develop. There are some things Claude's better for, there are some things that Chat GPT is better for. Um so experiment, play.

SPEAKER_03: 19:57

That's the main thing, isn't it? Try it.

unknown: 19:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 19:59

Don't knock it till you tried it, as that say I wonder where that came from originally, that saying.

SPEAKER_00: 20:04

So anyway, if you are going to use them, where people fall down, and particularly where people use it for social media content, please stop using AI to generate all your social posts. It really is obvious, even when you tell me it's not. I don't care how much you tell me that you've always used M-dashes, you've always used a big line of green tick emojis, and you've always used Oxford Commerce, and you've always used that question and answer format, like the problem, or you're not broken, you're just exhausted. Let's talk about this. Let's, in conclusion, yeah, how I don't know how much you tell me that you've all and used the three series of short stacked sentences, full stops everywhere, where there should be ellipses and semicolons and dashes. You have not always written in that way. You're just trying to hide the fact that you're being lazy, using Chat GPT to create your content from scratch, you're not training it properly, and you're just looking like a dick. And no, that video AI version of yourself that you've created does not look like you. It looks like a poor imitation of you, and you're trying to convince people that it is you. And honestly, if you actually look like that, I'd be worried.

SPEAKER_03: 21:21

I think it's with AI using that in that way, is it because are we coming at it slightly differently? Because we are both from a journalistic background, a writer's background, so we're gonna have what however much we're into it and we're learning about it and trying to embrace that kind of hungry learner type of attitude, we are gonna have a slightly skewed view of it, aren't we, in terms of what it produces and how it looks. So we would edit because we edited. But I think everybody should be editing. Yes, but that's the point I'm making.

SPEAKER_00: 21:53

Yeah, but even if they're not gonna edit, then they need to take the time to train the AI model they're using first so that it genuinely does sound like them, and they need to train it out of some of the habits and the pre-formatted performative AI bullshit that's been trained into it at the at a very basic open AI level over in the US.

SPEAKER_03: 22:15

So, but what if I've just it's just something that's just dropped in and it might be rubbish, but what if we're actually there's a kind of comfort in that, so we don't see anything wrong per se with that. It actually maybe we think it makes us sound better, more professional. No, it's not that for me. And it's not for me either, but what if there's a section of community in the same way that you know when we used to say, um, I don't know, you want to write a book or you're gonna do a presentation for a networking event and you're gonna produce this 30 seconds, 40 seconds, minute pitch or whatever, and it's pitch perfect in terms of beautiful English, but but it doesn't sound like you. Maybe it's the same with AI. We somehow think that's the professional way we should go down that route with that. So we don't see no, I'm not I'm you know, I'm just saying, is that something maybe people get stuck on as well?

SPEAKER_00: 23:03

It might be a something they get stuck on, so they're Oh, I think it's just laziness. So I think that it's just bloody lazy. No, I agree, yeah, it just isn't and it's not like when we were first when citizen journalists were first becoming a thing. Oh, yes. And you know, we sometimes had divided opinions over that because remember I used to say, Well, it's bloody brilliant, it means we can get the the news at source. But you used to sometimes have a bit of a wobble and go, Well, I've trained for X amount of years to be a journalist, and now they're coming over here, taking our wives, taking our jobs, you know, all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03: 23:39

It used to cheap for me, it used to cheapen the profession. So it was like, oh, it's you know, because it used to be seen as quite a not a noble profession, but a kind of a profession, and then it felt like everybody could come in after you know 30 seconds training or no training at all. So that's my own limitation, my bias.

SPEAKER_00: 23:55

But I think in that way, would say, but but hold on, if they are actually giving people the news that they want and the people, the consumers aren't noticing any difference, we've got to suck that up. Yeah. But with a myself, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But with people using particularly Chat GPT to produce their content, the consumers can tell. And I know from the conversations I have online with people who are not former journalists, editors, or PRs or marketing people. That was the clinic.

SPEAKER_03: 24:27

I think he's the next thing.

SPEAKER_00: 24:29

What time is it, Dad?

SPEAKER_03: 24:30

We've got to be out of here, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 24:30

No, we're okay, we're okay. It's currently. Oh, we've got a whole 12 minutes before that's fine. That's cool. People can tell when you're just AI in your posts and you're not training it properly first. So for me, if I'm I find it really hard now, if I'm scrolling through, say, LinkedIn, and there's a post that I know is from someone that's in a networking group that I'm in that I'm in, and I kind of feel obliged and want to support them, but I start to read it and it's so obviously being churned out in a really crass manner without any training or care by AI, it makes me want to just scroll past. Honestly, you could sit and scroll LinkedIn now, and about two-thirds of it looks the same. Because people aren't noticing these patterns. You've got to break the patterns and make it your own.

SPEAKER_03: 25:19

I yeah, I totally agree with that. I was looking on LinkedIn only this week. I had exactly that moment, I had I scrolled, and then I'd got about three or four in a row, and it was like the length of the post, the style of the post, everything about it, all the phrases that leap out at you, and I'm like, come on, put in a bit more effort. So I get it, and I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but I just think I wonder if people don't see it because they just see it as a solution.

SPEAKER_00: 25:44

I think it's because people are seeing social media as just a job that they need to tick off the list.

SPEAKER_02: 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:50

Rather than stopping and thinking, no, this is not just about saying, Oh, I've posted today, again, you whatever you put out there is representing you, is representing your brand, is part of a global networking opportunity. And so if you if AI didn't exist and these same people were hiring in assistants to write their marketing copy for them, and it was crap, or it looked the same as everybody else's, would they be happy or would they fire that employee? Fire. But that's what they're doing with AI. And when you see people who are out there and and and calling themselves experts in their fields, and yet they are churning out this absolute automated drivel, for me, you're losing face massively. And there are people that I desperately want to support, and then I look at the stuff they're churning out, and I've tried to help with some of them, and they all deny they're using it. It's like, yes, you are, don't lie. That just destroys your credibility more.

SPEAKER_03: 26:54

Here's a weird thing to draw a comparison comparison to, but is it a bit like these days in lots of places you can go into a shopping centre or the high street and the same things turn up on the high street, the same look, the same fridge, it's it's all the same. No thing is it.

SPEAKER_00: 27:10

I don't think that's the same. No, okay. There's a comfort in that. If I want to go buy a shirt from I don't know, next, yeah. I know that if I've been to a next in Peterborough, yeah, and I hadn't got my size, or for whatever reason I was in a rush and didn't buy the thing I wanted. If I go to a next in Reading, chances are they'll have the same thing, and I expect that because they're supposed to look the same, because that's just brand uniformity. Okay. But all of these people showing up with posts that look the same, they are disparate individuals who are just being fucking lazy. You tell them does. There is no way around it, and they are destroying their credibility, they're destroying their brands. And some people have said, Well, this coach from the US told me that I should be laying out my posts in this way because it's easier to read when you get things like the broetry that every now and then pops up on LinkedIn. Shortline gap, shortline gap, shortline gap. No, it's not easier to read, you just look like a dick. And if you're going to take somebody else's word for it and just throw it out their rope, well, then you're a bit of a gullible dickhead yourself, aren't you? I love it. I love it. I just I hate to see good people throwing their reputation and their knowledge and their expertise down the drain because they just can't be asked to learn to do something properly here.

SPEAKER_03: 28:29

And that's that leads into something, maybe it's another podcast, about the value of our marketing and how we go about our marketing and using AI within that space. And I'm sure there's a lot of marketeers that would be listening, or listening in, um, that would have a view on that because it's it's what makes you unique, right? Is your social posts and how you approach those and what you write about, what you create, whether it's through video, audio, written. Um, and so working alongside AI, you can still retain you and the essence of your brand and your products, services, your knowledge. But when you rely entirely on AI without feeding it with anything about that is truly and you just keep doing it, yeah, and it and you know, it's a funny place to be in, I think, for a lot of people that are probably there's probably a lot of fear around that too, Taz, about getting it wrong, but ironically, by not working with it, you are getting it wrong, right?

SPEAKER_00: 29:24

There's an old um there's an old very, very unPC joke that used to do the rounds a lot, and it would be attributed um to various different people or different sets of people, and it was the the premise was that somebody was a bit daft. I think the last time somebody told it to me, it was way back in the days when Posh and Bex were first becoming a thing and and David Beckham was being used as the stooge in the joke. So whoever you want to insert into the joke, um the the point was that Posh and Bex are sitting on the sofa and the horse racing's on the telly, and they both have a little wager with each other, and you know. Posh says she wants horse number three and Bex says he wants horse number twenty-one, whatever it is. And at the end of the race, Posh wins, Bex loses, and Posh is jumping up and down going, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I won. I can't believe you bet on that one. And Beckham in the joke says, I can't believe it either. I watched this race earlier on before we watched the ro watched it again. I didn't think it'd lose twice. But it's the same that illustrates the point perfectly. You're doing the same thing over and over and over again, you're being blind to feedback, you're not giving yourself perspective, and you keep betting on the same losing horse expecting it to win. I loved that analogy, it's fab. You've got to stop it. Yeah. You really have gotta stop it. I love AI, I love its capabilities, I think we need to use it ethically. I think we not need we we we should not be using it to just willy-nilly take food out of people's mouths.

SPEAKER_03: 31:03

To replace, yeah, never to replace.

SPEAKER_00: 31:05

But if we're gonna use it to create our content, we need to get a lot better. And you know, sometimes there are gonna be instances. I remember a post I put out oh god probably about a year ago now, when I was barely dicking about with AI. And I remember somebody saying to me afterwards, Oh, that seemed a bit AI to me. And it was what it was one of my clients in like a group call, and I went, actually that one wasn't. But you can get you you bet your bottom dollar. I went back to that post and analysed it and thought, why did they think that? And when I looked back at it, I was like, I could see why they thought that was. There were a couple of patterns I dropped in there, it was a it was a Friday night post. I was being lazy and even I d'd some of the crap in it, but it hadn't actually been an AI post. But I looked back at that post and I went, Well, I'm not gonna do that again. So, can you find a way to take a step back, look at your post, and just ask yourself, does that look like it's AI? And if you're gonna say to yourself, Well, it's okay, everybody's using that, that doesn't make it okay.

SPEAKER_03: 32:15

We are the Borg, you will be assimilated. I think that's about time we wrapped up, Taz. That's been a really passionate discussion again. I think we're getting good. We're getting braver with that.

SPEAKER_00: 32:27

I think I think we need to continue this one at another time. To be continued, definitely, to be continued. You cannot use AI in the way that you're using it and end up looking pretty. Honestly, you keep churning out these bots in the way that you're doing them, you are not looking like seven of nine, I promise you. And the young people are going, who? Right, shall we wrap it there? Shall we give it one quick one closing thing for people to think about? What do you think, Ash? What do people need to be considering when it comes to all things? Chat GPT, Leonardo, and Claude. I think you AI et al.

SPEAKER_03: 33:01

Research it, look at it, feed it with your stuff, your voice in your way. Don't ever let it replace what you do. Or, in fact, if you don't do a lot on your marketing, it will actually give you some pointers, how you can get more involved in your own marketing or working with marketing agencies, with the professionals, but don't ever lose your voice to it, don't allow it to take over from you, but embrace it and get to know it, be that hungry learner and learn about it. That's just what I'm doing, and I'm loving, I'm loving what I'm learning from it, and it's a great assistant, it's a great member to have on your team.

SPEAKER_00: 33:34

And here's one final thought for you to just think about. If you are getting Chat GPT to write your posts, you can ask Chat GPT to then go and do a sweep of that post and check to see if there are any performative elements of AI in it, any AI patterns or anything that's been programmed into open AI when it's anything to do with social media and to remove them. You can scroll back through all your old posts and find some posts before the days of AI and feed them in and ask it to learn your voice. You can even go in there cold, start a new thread, and say, Can you please tell me what are some of the AI giveaways? Tell me about any language patterns, any performative programmes, anything in terms of emojis or style that I need to be aware of that would make my post look like it's AI, and then bloody well learn from it. And when it says no, we've swept it, there's now no AI, then tell it to go and sweep again and again and again, and you will notice it will start coming back with you saying that to you saying things like, Oh, I see what you mean. That bit there was a bit too AI, that bit there was a bit too that pattern. Don't be a dick. So with you, not for you. I was gonna say it's about devoting time to it. Isn't it? Give give it time. It's about devoting time to your own credibility and your own reputation. Work with it. Don't let it be try to become you. Anyway, on that note, we will see you next Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01: 35:04

You've been listening to Awesome Me Off Topic with Asher Clearwater and Taz Thornton. Professional oversharers and occasional business geniuses. Follow or subscribe if your brain also works in loops and leaps. We'll be back when the next thought strikes, or when Mercury goes direct.