My candid thoughts on a future with AI


Hey Reader!

I got this email from my mom last week that just said, “Fight the AI.”

And I was like, Mom, you have no idea. I've been fighting with it in my brain for weeks now! 😅

You could say I've had my dance battle with AI.

At the end of January I was very anti-AI — you know, because it can affect my entire business model and that feels terrible.

So in order to know more, I've spent more time over the last month or so using it. And, unfortunately, it's been really incredible. 😅

While, fortunately, also giving me so much to think about.

Things like —

> The ethics of AI and having it generate copy (from who knows where)

> To streamlining menial things in my business (meaning that I'm not paying for as much of my team members' time anymore — and that feels weird because I like paying my team members and I love that I am able to help support their livelihood!)

> But it's also giving me something to play around with and see what I can use to make it my own and how it can positively impact my business

Clearly, it’s got me thinking ALL over the place. It’s given me more than one headache, but I’m committed to using every part of my brain and personal values to weigh the pros and cons of using AI in my business.

I don't know what your impression has been of AI, but I've actually got a couple of things that I can share with you today that might impact how you think about it.

01 | We can decide how we use AI.

When it comes to me continuing to have my team, I am decidedly not replacing my team members with AI. I absolutely love having real human eyeballs and brains on our client projects and I will never go without that.

Whether we use it to import email copy directly into a client’s ESP or pulling together client content from their site into a Google Doc (following parameters I GIVE IT) or tracking email data automatically — there are just so many different places where I feel good bringing in AI to alleviate the really boring parts of the job for my team members without eliminating their jobs.

My team is super important to how we operate at Duett.

That, and as someone who has read Fahrenheit 451 more than once, so much of this reminds me of Montag’s neighbor. I want to be like Clarisse, a bit odd and “anti-social,” so that even as the world becomes more autonomous… I still know how to have a conversation over dinner. (If you haven’t read it, this is the copy I have — it has Ray Bradbury’s thoughts 50 years later and it’s a must read.)

02 | AI is trippy as hell.

I got deep into Claude for a few hours one afternoon. Like, deep creation. Fast creation.

It was all fun and games until I got in my car to go to the chiropractor, and, while it's only a few blocks away, at one point I had to tell myself "Girl, hit the brakes!"

There's something so wild about how fast AI can move that it feels like time travel and like you're in some sort of alternate reality. And that's something that I want to be aware of and caution you about as you play around with it yourself. It can really feel like you're some sort of superhero flying through space.

03 | We need to ground ourselves as technology changes.

That brings me to my final point.

This article was shared with me in a mastermind group, and I think it really sums up some of my fears and how AI really takes away what is important about being grounded as a person, as a human, as a living being with thoughts, feelings, strategies, input, and experiences that a computer doesn't have.

It gives suggestions about how we can maintain our Self, even as the world online and offline changes drastically because of the evolution of technology.

I certainly don't have anything definitive to declare one way or another when it comes to AI, but I want to make sure that I'm aware of what's happening in the tech space so that we can evolve with it or be accountable for how we use it going forward.

I share all of this with you simply to say that I am here taking on and tackling the changes of AI alongside of you. If any thoughts come up for you that you want to share, please reply back and let me know. 💌

Let's Duett,

Allea

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