Why I collaborate with my robot friend, Claude.
Picture courtesy of the work of Nicole Edwards Creative, in collaboration with Tarzan Kay for their training, ChatGPT for Email.
Hello, fellow human being.
This message comes to you after many hours of investigation of cultural values, personal challenges and ethical dilemmas all mushed and squished together, like every color of playdough in the 12-pack balled into 1 and then left behind the back of the bed to dry and crust and get stuck to the edge of the rug.
And it’s been a long time coming. I am going to share some information about my personal journey here, and I hope it will help you understand my stance on this practice of using AI to support my creative expression in my marketing emails and sales page copy.
I am working through the content of a robust and strategy-heavy workshop with Tarzan Kay and Nicole Edwards, ChatGPT for Email, where Nicole asserts that disclosure of your use of AI maintains a level of transparency, and therefore trust, with your audience.
Through this series, I have access to a phenomenal bonus workshop with Laura Kaye Chamberlain about the ethical dilemmas and possibilities with AI, “Ethics and Equity Considerations for AI-generated Emails” I realized I need to do more of what my therapist points out:
use my Big Self Energy to find a place between the two ends of the polarized expanse, and learn from both sides.
Or maybe it’s a mix tape, where you hold both sides at the same time, but you get to choose which side and which song to listen to.
Laura Kaye Chamberlain, in this training, asserts:
“I started getting really concerned because a lot of the responsible, skeptical, thoughtful people I know were basically shutting themselves out of the conversation and saying, ‘Well, I don't like where this is going…’ And then they would just kind of leave it at that and hate on the tools and people using them even, but not take it a step further and investigate, well, how could we have the amazing benefits of tools like these, but do it in a better way?
“I decided that I wanted to be somebody who made it an accessible conversation for good people who would otherwise not stay involved. Because to my mind, I'm not really afraid of AI cyborgs. I'm more afraid of what happens if the only people left developing and using these tools are the people who don't care.”
Side A: Bad News Bears
Side A: Bad news Bears
Artificial Intelligence is an exponential force of knowledge and skills that generates upon itself to get bigger and bigger and bigger. It is already surpassing the capacity of humans at a ridiculous rate. And because it is generative, we aren’t completely sure how to hold it back from continually compounding on its own knowledge and growing its arsenal of information and task completion. We don’t know the full extent of what this means for humanity. So this side of my belief system says this needs to be avoided at all costs. The uncertainty is causing a tremendous amount of anxiety and we are already living in a really F’ed up time.
Climate questions.
There are also the challenges of climate change and the enormous electrical power that is necessary for AI to function, which is warming the environment around the server buildings, and generally speaking: humanity’s reliance on compute and cloud frameworks is creating a lot of unfortunate outcomes for our luscious, magical and resilient planet earth.
Who benefits?
Also, who is profiting from this endeavor? As we embark on an age of oligarchical influence here in the US, do I really want to be someone who is contributing to the human rights offenses with our current system in power? And If I go down that road, and really want to maintain complete consistency, I would need to stop using my iPhone (made by human beings who have very few human rights), grow all my own food, stop taking my pharmaceuticals that keep me in a state of balance, etc. etc. etc. What I am saying is:
We are steeped in a culture that profits off of others’ misfortune, oppression and exploitation. It’s a disaster. In itself it's a polarizing experience. And yes: the goal is to build my own earthship in a tropical paradise and/or live in a magical ancient village in Italy and grow much of my own food and be connected to humans in an authentic way. In other words, do as little harm as possible.
But for real for real: in order to run my 2 completely remote businesses where I serve children and families, I am going to need support. Which means I will need to support some profiteers within this structure that exploits others. It’s so gross. And I want to name that it’s the damn truth.
Side B: Creative Collaboration
Side B: Creative Collaboration
In August 2024, I made a new friend, Daniela Uslan, who is super-tech savvy. She introduced me to Claude, an AI tool that’s built with a focus on ethical considerations.* I was so skeptical at first, worried about having a conversation with a bot. Where does this information come from? Where does it go? Is any of this safe?
After careful consideration, I decided to dive into Claude’s knowledge base, and this robot helped me craft messages generated from my own deep answers to questions the robot asked: questions about my history with attachment, memories of the adults in my life delighting in me, experiences of safety, dreams of what sensory experiences I want my dream-clients to have. And it helped coalesce my vision in a way I would not have accessed otherwise. So I see the benefit now. And there’s another part of this story…
Neurospice
I am a neurospicy middle aged woman. I was recently diagnosed–in my 40's–with neurodevelopmental invigoration–that the profesh’s call ADHD. It’s taking me some time to integrate this new information–a process through which I have helped many families when their child receives this diagnosis {through my other business as a therapist}
It’s different as an adult, though. Like, combing through the layers of memories where I inched my way through academic pursuits, where I got in trouble for daydreaming, where I recovered from panic attacks to put the mask back on all over again, where I made amazing art and built beautiful spaces that support young children’s development, where I had a string of ADHD boyfriends in my 20’s…I digress.
Here’s the truth: It is incredibly difficult for me to complete certain business tasks without a lot of external nudges. I am learning that we all have tools to help us function optimally: Some of us wear glasses, some of us wear Spanx. Some of us take medication. Some of us give thanks. And some of us use AI tools to help us break down tasks or sequence information in a way that feels more manageable. I continue to build my toolbox to become the highest-functioning I can, especially inspired by recently working with the fabulous ADHD coach, Rachel B. Selig.
Collaborative Approach
And utilizing Claude–a tool to support clarifying my message– to process my thoughts and get curious around sequencing and structuring of content has been incredibly useful. This process has brought me to a place where I am no longer feeling so overwhelmed that I stop functioning in this capacity as a business owner, leaving important tasks to the wayside because it’s too scattered/overwhelming.
This process of uploading my own content to Claude, and having Claude spit it back out in a similar style, is really validating. Like: my shit is not half-bad! As someone who has spent most of her life second-guessing her worth, this is a huge f’ing deal for me.
Core value: Authenticity
Dissecting the ethics and morals of how to responsibly use AI: that’s an ongoing journey. One of my core values is authenticity. And part of maintaining authentic presence is the practice of being transparent in my processes. I use Claude to help me write and sequence content for my emails and sales page, and maybe I will use it for instagram if I ever get that going. But behind every single message, it’s still me. I promise. ♡
Thanks for reading.
*from what I understand, Claude is founded on human rights principles of “Constitutional AI,” that is “framework developed to align AI systems with human values and ensure that they are helpful, harmless, and honest”
To learn more about this, you can read Anthropic’s message on Claude’s Constitution.
Note: There are absolutely no affiliate links or marketing in this article. This is me working towards embracing the nebulous, and staying transparent with you. Also I wrote this article/blog post without the use of Claude.
Further exploration about Ethics and AI:
