AI = Sea Change

How do we move forward as spiritual women entrepreneurs?

I recently met with a dear friend who showed me the ropes of using the AI chatbot ChatGPT. She said it saves her 2-3 hours of work, and I gasped. I admitted to her that any time some new trend comes out, I’m one to infuse in a dose of scepticism. I used to be the opposite, I used to devour anything that was new and current voraciously. Looking back on what changed, I realised I was having a hard time keeping up so I decided to step back altogether. This started with music, whenever a favourite artist of mine came out with new music, I used to listen to the album back and forth within a few days. Fast forward to years later, and it takes me a month to get into it. However, I’m realising I need to be more open with new technology, and at least understand it and try it before I judge it. Especially as a spiritual well-being coach and creative, there were lingering fears about AI because all I could picture were robots taking over. There’s been a lot of the rhetoric I was hearing was that AI was going to take over jobs, and I want to make the choice to move forward and keep practising the ethos of choosing love over fear. So the initial resistance to AI was realising I was allowing fear to take over. I realised this mechanism I built up was for protecting myself.

With seemingly new trends, technology, and slang coming out all the time, it can feel draining to keep up. However, I want to shift this mindset and learn about new trends at my own pace, especially if it has the potential to bring a positive impact on my life. This is definitely a reflection of the growth mindset I’ve been adopting, and I was definitely curious to learn more.

A recent BBC article titled “AI Anxiety: Workers who fear losing their jobs to artificial intelligence”, explores how we can get past the fear and find a silver lining. Instead of ignoring it, the more education and training working professionals have towards AI, the better we can embrace it and progress alongside it.

Knowledge is power. I truly believe that the more that I know, the more that I can make decisions from an empowered place instead of cowering in the unknown. If you’re a coach like me, I invite you to read on and learn how to use it to your advantage!

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot function that is trained to follow an instruction, and in return, it responds with an output. For example, you can type in the question “Can you make me a grocery list for a plant-based diet?”, and it will compose a list for you.

That’s exactly what it is, a simulation. AI cannot replace you. It might replace a task that you do, but we learn to adapt and use it to our advantage.

I love what spiritual coach Abiola Abrams says about AI, which is that AI cannot replace your authenticity. It can approximate it, but it will never be as magnificent as the magic of you.

We’ve been able to adapt before, and I’m confident we’re able to keep doing so because we are resilient beings. I hark back to an era when cars were not mainstream yet, and most people were still using horse-drawn carriages. Imagine the adjustment they had to accept and make. While people in this century (hello 21st humans, and greetings to those who came after if this language isn’t obsolete by then) often idealise what a society full of horses and carriages can look like, as we heart the trotting down the streets and visualise drivers greeting fellow drivers by dipping their top hats, the reality was that relying on literal horsepower was not sanitary. In 1908, New York’s 120,000 horses produced a pungent 60,000 gallons of urine and 2.5 million pounds of manure every day on the city’s streets. I really believe that we can and will adapt, as we have always done so. AI is a reality that our society is integrating as we speak, as highlighted by Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

If you are fearful, there’s no shame in this. You’re human! We are often afraid of the things we don’t know and while leaning into it sometimes doesn’t lead to the most optimal outcomes, the further we push what we don’t know or fear away, the more it can catch up with us.

Instead of marinating in the fear, and leaving it in an abstract space, let’s dive into what these fears are and how we can move through them.

What are some Fears Around AI?

Privacy
Biassed Outcomes
Cyber Attacks

What I find interesting about all these fears that concern AI are ultimately human-generated. The fears of privacy being taken advantage of due to the data being processed, the biased outcomes and mass spreading of disinformation, and the proliferation of cyber attacks; are all human-generated. Ultimately AI is still a tool that is created and controlled by humans. AI systems are designed to perform specific tasks and aren’t capable of acting on their own without human input.

As Spiritual Women Entrepreneurs & Coaches, I completely understand the desire to feel solely rooted in groundedness and the feelings of apprehension that can arise. And while technology might seem like the antithesis of what we do, it actually very much enables and enhances what we do. It gives us the magic of coming together even if we might not have had the chance to do so in person, how powerful is that! I would love to invite you to embrace the Gemini + Mercurial magic of communication and efficiency. I believe that this is a gift that these beautiful astrological and planetary superpowers are bringing us.

As one ‘of my favourite RuPaul quotes (which apparently was first said by Will Smith), “If you stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready!”

After this crucial realisation, it’s crystal clear that we actually need more education and training in not only AI but namely ethics. This is where you come in! Humans still need to reach deeper levels of consciousness, and understanding, of ethical behaviour. We need our ancestral wisdom and teachings now more than ever. We need to learn more about the philosophy and teachings of Yoga and become even more grounded in

How we can use it instead:

As a brainstorming tool
As a way to get organised
Assist with creating content

USEFUL AI Tools that I use (Alongside chat gpt):

Goblin Tools: https://goblin.tools/

Goblin helps you to break down tasks that feel complex to approach!

2. Poe (on iOS)

Poe is host to a lot of various AI Chatbots, and you can play around with which chatbot resonates with you the msot.

This image was generated using a Photo Editing App + AI!

How I got this result was by telling the app what I wanted, and described it to generate an “AI background”. Voilà!

AI systems are limited by their programming! They can only make decisions based on the information they have been programmed to consider and don’t have the ability to think creatively or make judgements beyond what they have been programmed to do. What they are essentially doing is taking content from across the internet, and then regurgitating it into an answer.

The bots don’t have the awareness to differentiate what is accurate or not.

At the end of the day, you are the one with the ethics, creativity, and soul.

I hope this article helped navigate the unknown for you!

References

“The Day the Horse Lost Its Job - Microsoft Today in Technology.” Microsoft Today in Technology. N.p., 21 Dec. 2017. Web. 5 May 2023.

Cox, Josie. “AI Anxiety: The Workers Who Fear Losing Their Jobs to Artificial Intelligence - BBC Worklife.” BBC - Homepage. BBC, 18 Apr. 2023. Web. 5 May 2023.