This really resonates. “AI generated” tells us something about the tool, but very little about the thinking behind the work. As an artist and writer, I’m far more interested in the ideas, lived experience, judgement and creative decisions a person brings to the process. A tool can help articulate an idea; it can’t have lived the life that created it. Excellent discussion, Bryant.
I’ve followed you and your work for years, and this one hit me especially hard — partly because the timing is almost ridiculous.
I literally just wrote a post for my own followers about AI, and about what it has actually meant in my life as someone living with MS and disabilities. Not as a replacement for my voice, my knowledge, my lived experience, my creativity, or my brain — but as a tool that helps me access all of those things when my body or my brain doesn’t always cooperate.
And THAT is the part of this conversation that so often gets completely missed.
For some of us, AI isn’t about being lazy or taking a shortcut. It can be an accessibility tool. A bridge. A way of getting the thoughts that are already inside us out into the world when fatigue, cognitive changes, memory issues, physical limitations, or sheer lack of usable energy might otherwise stop us.
The ideas are still mine. The lived experience is certainly mine. The opinions, the stories, the knowledge, the humour, the things I care about and the things I want to say are mine. AI simply helps me work with the brain and body I actually have instead of constantly fighting against them.
So when I read your distinction between the tool used to produce something and the actual thinking, judgement, experience and responsibility behind it, I wanted to bloody well stand up and applaud.
Technology has always helped human beings extend what we are able to do. For people living with disability, sometimes that extension isn’t merely convenient — it is profoundly freeing.
Thank you for writing this. Truly.
After following you for so many years, I already knew I valued the way you think, but this article put language around something I have been trying to articulate myself.
Thank you, Sammi. What you said about AI helping you work with the brain and body you actually have gets to the heart of what I was trying to say better than almost anything I could add. That is exactly the kind of human extension this technology should be for. ❤️
One only has to spend five minutes in your physical presence to understand that you are definitely a special type of thinker, orator, and human being, to say the least. I was in awe from he moment you started to speak at a conference over ten years ago, what a treat!
The best way I can thank you is to continue striving to be a decent, loving, caring, human being, such as yourself. Thank you once again, sir, for the profound impact you have made in my life!
This really resonates. “AI generated” tells us something about the tool, but very little about the thinking behind the work. As an artist and writer, I’m far more interested in the ideas, lived experience, judgement and creative decisions a person brings to the process. A tool can help articulate an idea; it can’t have lived the life that created it. Excellent discussion, Bryant.
Thanks Penelope 🎨 And I really enjoy your content in my feed.
Thank you for your support Bryant
Bryant, this is absolutely fabulous.
I’ve followed you and your work for years, and this one hit me especially hard — partly because the timing is almost ridiculous.
I literally just wrote a post for my own followers about AI, and about what it has actually meant in my life as someone living with MS and disabilities. Not as a replacement for my voice, my knowledge, my lived experience, my creativity, or my brain — but as a tool that helps me access all of those things when my body or my brain doesn’t always cooperate.
And THAT is the part of this conversation that so often gets completely missed.
For some of us, AI isn’t about being lazy or taking a shortcut. It can be an accessibility tool. A bridge. A way of getting the thoughts that are already inside us out into the world when fatigue, cognitive changes, memory issues, physical limitations, or sheer lack of usable energy might otherwise stop us.
The ideas are still mine. The lived experience is certainly mine. The opinions, the stories, the knowledge, the humour, the things I care about and the things I want to say are mine. AI simply helps me work with the brain and body I actually have instead of constantly fighting against them.
So when I read your distinction between the tool used to produce something and the actual thinking, judgement, experience and responsibility behind it, I wanted to bloody well stand up and applaud.
Technology has always helped human beings extend what we are able to do. For people living with disability, sometimes that extension isn’t merely convenient — it is profoundly freeing.
Thank you for writing this. Truly.
After following you for so many years, I already knew I valued the way you think, but this article put language around something I have been trying to articulate myself.
I will be sharing this one far and wide.
Absolutely fucking fabulous. ❤️
Thank you, Sammi. What you said about AI helping you work with the brain and body you actually have gets to the heart of what I was trying to say better than almost anything I could add. That is exactly the kind of human extension this technology should be for. ❤️
Finally someone has put into words how I feel about this entire AI “debate” I use AI as a tool. It is not my identity.
Thank you Bryant!
Ha! Glad you liked it 🤠
Reminds me of an old Chinese library joke:
No food inside.
Crumbs attract rats.
Rats read all the books, get college‑educated, and end up running the world.
Now it's AI.
It appears my account is compromised. I tried to respond to a personal message you sent me, but an unauthorized text got through instead.
Brilliant! Bravo!
Bryant, AI has nothing on you, sir!
One only has to spend five minutes in your physical presence to understand that you are definitely a special type of thinker, orator, and human being, to say the least. I was in awe from he moment you started to speak at a conference over ten years ago, what a treat!
The best way I can thank you is to continue striving to be a decent, loving, caring, human being, such as yourself. Thank you once again, sir, for the profound impact you have made in my life!