AI: Not a Requirement to Live

The AI stories are coming fast and furious now. Will AI change how we read? Will historians embrace AI and what does that mean?

I don’t know, but I do know this much–the use of technology is a choice. And you don’t have to choose to do so. As a reader and a very traditional historian in terms of methodology, I am quite happy with the life I live and the choices I make. We don’t have to just embrace it because it’s new. AI exists for one reason and one reason only–to throw you out of a job. New York Times tech writers can be as flippant about this as they want to be but the fact is still the fact. I can’t control what my future holds in terms of employment (well, to some extent I can because of my union) and I can’t control the larger trends of society, but I can control myself and the choices I make.

So just don’t use AI for anything. It’s really that simple. Just opt out, at least outside of your work life if you don’t have the level of control over your labor that allows you to do that. I may be an anachronism, but I actually believe in the process of being a human. And I think that’s a good thing. So I am just going to embrace it until I die. To me, AI is a direct attack on humanness. Why would I participate in the most anti-human process imaginable?