It’s time to get really personal with each other. Our emails, our posts. Everything. It all needs to be personal in some way, shape, or form. 

Why? Because AI can’t duplicate your lived experience. 

It doesn’t know how your coffee smells. It can’t taste maple syrup drizzled over butter biscuits (okay, maybe I had some carbs for breakfast). 

Because here’s the thing. Educators, employers, and pretty much the entire publishing industry are all trying to pinpoint AI tells. Too many em-dashes. Lots of buzzwords. Lack of real voice. A polished, monotonous tone. 

And while these tells may be true now, they will change over time. AI is constantly learning. Newer versions will have fewer tells, the writing will improve, the tone will become more personalized and natural. Eventually it will become very difficult to differentiate between human and machine.

Except for lived experience.

Right now, I’m sitting on my sofa with the laptop situated on the armrest. I’m listening to a Kawehi Nirvana cover on wired earphones because I refuse to use Bluetooth ones. I’m chewing spearmint gum and looking forward to having a salad for lunch. My house smells faintly of vanilla because of the candle on the entertainment center. 

Could AI write this? Nope, not a chance. 

It’s unique to my own experience. AI can’t duplicate it.

For now.

Here are some other things I’m thinking about this week…

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Something New:

• NeuroAuthNet for biometric identification. Unlike fingerprints or facial recognition, AI-powered authentication through brainwave patterns will supposedly bring more privacy to identity verification. At least, that’s what new research out of Alagappa University in India says. Apparently they hook you up to a brain-computer interface headset and perform an EEG, while running the whole thing through AI. I’m not a fan of facial recognition, but identification through brainwaves sounds a bit more invasive. Hopefully new neurotech privacy laws will stop this in its tracks.

Something Old:

• George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Published in 1949, Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has just been ranked the darkest book of all time on Goodreads. The Road and Clockwork Orange also made the list, but Nineteen Eighty-Four still scored at the top. It is a deeply dystopian story about a future full of mind-control, propaganda, and total loss of privacy. Nothing like today’s world (she says, her voice dripping with sarcasm).

Something Inspiring:

• Quadriplegic makes music with brain implants. Sixty-nine year old punk musician Galen Buckwalter became paralyzed from the chest down at age sixteen after a diving accident. Now he uses six neural implants developed by Blackrock Neurotech to operate a custom audio interface, creating music for his punk band, Siggy. Their latest album, inspired by Buckwalter’s journey, is called “Wirehead.” Can’t really get more cyberpunk than that.

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Alright, that’s it for now. Join me here next week for more.