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What I’m Doing Instead of Doubling Down on AI​
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Some people will like me more after reading this email, and some people might decide to unsubscribe because I am no longer relevant.

Many subscribers will feel relief, and others will be annoyed.

It’s time we talked about AI.

Let’s f#cking go.

Some days I feel totally freaked out about AI, and that my speed of adoption should be so much better. I don’t want to get left behind. A million times a day I go to Claude with some waste-of-time prompt that costs me more time than it saves. (Like a good soldier, I switched from ChatGPT!)

All day long Instagram is trying to convince me that I will soon be replaced by a machine who can do a better job of writer/consultant/coach. The latest wave of content is trying to tell me that, as a woman, it’s important I step up, and be “in the room where it happens” lest all the decisions about AI rollout be made by men.

To which I want to shout, “Too late!”

(Even if I know that’s probably not true)

I want to rage about all the music and poetry and books and art that got chewed up and spat out with no real consequences for the people who profit, about the fact that Mel Robbins wants me to upload my financial data to Copilot.

I’m mad as heck, man!

…and - let’s both take a breath here - I am okay.

More than okay.

I’ve never felt better about the work that I’m doing, especially my work in community singing and group facilitation. I have the rare skill of being able to bring humans together to create transformative experiences, experiences of connection and belonging. I believe there will always be a job for people who know how to do this. This community singing event is my defense against the robots! (Drivable from Toronto or Buffalo!)

Another thing.

On the days when my head is screwed on straight, when I’ve spent time consulting with rivers and trees instead of glued to a screen for fourteen hours, I remember that I have something that the best AI in the world doesn’t have and will never have: a body.

I can lay in the sun-warmed grass and listen for the answers I need, instead of asking Claude to predict what answer it thinks I’m looking for.

I can share a whisky with a good friend, and talk long into the night about how to solve insolvable problems.

I can wrap my arms around my 8yo son Mo and ask him if he knows where recycling goes after the truck picks it up, and if he’s saving for my birthday present yet. (I’ve requested a Ninja Cremi.)

I FREAKING LOVE BEING HUMAN.

It’s messy and awkward and uncomfortable and I never want it to stop. I want to live in a world that includes spelling mistakes, clumsy commencement speeches that are heartfelt and imperfectly worded, with people being their weird, unpolished selves.

If you want to create a career in AI, cool. You do you! I bet I would be too if I were trying to make my first million on the internet.

…but maybe it makes your whole body itch.

I think that’s worth listening to as well.

This era of accelerated capitalism is working hard to convince us that our humanness is a liability, that machines can think better than we can, that our bodies should not be part of the equation. Superfast adoption of AI separates us from the wisdom of our bodies and the collective. The more separated we are, from our bodies and from each other, the easier we are to control.

The message is that your expertise can be scraped, processed, and repackaged without your participation or consent, and that this will happen whether you participate or not, so you may as well play along. Keep producing faster, consuming more, figure out the most efficient way to function inside this exhausting machine.

What if you did the opposite?

What if you chose to deliberately slow things down? To take it slow in your AI adoption and learning process, and take lots of breaks to allow your body to catch up.

And while you’re at it, maybe take a basket-weaving class or learn to dance Bachata. I’m finishing up this email right after my beatboxing lesson with Ki5! Truly! My favourite thing to say these days is, “Sorry I can’t hang out tonight, I have a beatboxing lesson.”

What if the best way to fight back against this new form of colonization is by reinvesting in your connection to your body and the beings around you, by spending time with the land?

What would that look like for you?

What might be possible if you committed to doing that every single day, for at least the same amount of time as you spend working with AI?

That’s something I’m curious about.

Report back if you try it.

Tarzan

Tarzan Kay Kalryzian [she/her] Did someone forward you this email? ​Subscribe here​. Follow me on ​LinkedIn​.

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