Resistance Isn’t Futile

Dear AI,

It's our fault—we showed you its beauty, after all. 

Our beloved em dash has been in print since the 15th Century. We felt its emotions in Dickinson's works. You are going to have to learn to share. We are not letting go.

Signed,

Em Dash Lovers

Do I use AI as my assistant at work and home? Absolutely. Was I excited it shared my love for em dashes? Thrilled…at first. But now I have to edit them out or be ostracized? Why? Why do we create work cultures that tout AI adoption and then shame us for using it? <Sigh>

As an Organizational Change Manager, I help individuals learn best practices for enhancing productivity using AI technology. Leaders insist they want their humans to adopt this new way of working so they can realize their return on investment (ROI). Adoption projects get funded. Campaigns are launched.

But are we really being encouraged to use it? Absolutely for data analysis and productivity improvements. However, content creation is where things get very grey, and a little mean.

Is this phenomenon a sign of a toxic workplace that encourages—or at least ignores—bullying? Perhaps a way for individuals to distinguish themselves as superior to the use of an AI assistant (therefore saving their jobs from impending doom)? A positive sign that we are not (yet) drooling zombies unable to discern humans from AI?

As an eternal optimist, I would like to think the anti-em dash movement is a response to a fear that humans might be replaced. Fear is, after all, the basis for most human emotions. It is our primary survival tool. So, once again, we can say, “Thank you, brain, for keeping me alive, but I’m not about to die.“

It is smart to keep a watchful eye on both Artificial Intelligence and our fellow humans alike. And that’s why we won’t be replaced. We think critically. We challenge thoughts and behaviors. But please, I beg you, go pick on the semicolon.

“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.”

—Carl Sagan

Shannon Vasko is a natural-born planner with a passion for strategy and integrated communications. AI was not used for content creation. © MI Compass Services.