How to use AI with integrity: Setting professional boundaries
“Is AI really just like a calculator? Not really. But it is a tool. And how we use tools in a creative space like coaching and entrepreneurship matters.”
- Ericka Thomas
Transcript
How to use AI with integrity
Setting your professional AI boundaries
Are you hearing a lot about AI? I am. It seems every other story in the online business has to do with new AI tools. Either how this new tool will revolutionize your business or how it’s the beginning of the end of free thought and creativity. No matter what camp you fall into, AI technology is here to stay and you might want to set some intentional professional boundaries around how or why or if you are going to use it.
I’m sure you’ve heard of a few of these tools. ChatGPT and Jasper were the first ones I heard about. My first knee jerk reaction was Oh Hell No! Down with the machines! Images of Skynet popped into my head. For you youngsters out there that’s a terminator reference. It’s moments like these in history when I think life imitates art not the other way around. And why shouldn’t it be that way. After all “Everything that’s real was imagined first” as we learned in the velveteen rabbit.
Personally, one of my core beliefs is self reliance. So for me the idea that I would outsource any part of my content to artificial intelligence makes my skin crawl. But then I realized that I am already using AI in other capacities. Maybe you are too. Spellcheck is a form of AI, Grammarly also. A lot of tech tools use AI technology just behind the scenes. I use a transcript service called OtterAI to transcribe my podcast interviews for show notes.
In conversations with other coaches I heard a lot of excitement about the possibilities. A lot of coaches struggle with marketing themselves and the creative aspects of social media content creation. Which is why any package that includes templates for emails, nurture sequences, social posts, and prompts is so popular/lucrative.
I get that. When I first started as an online business the hardest thing was figuring out what to post about. It was a big time suck and I felt like all I did was reinvent the wheel. And then there was the Social media hack that wiped it all away. 3 years of content…poof. Gone in the blink of an eye.
So part of my disdain for the use of AI probably stems from the fact that I had to do it all myself and how dare anyone else get off so easy. That’s self awareness for you. It highlights all your mean girl tendencies.
So because I’m a thinking adult and I practice detachment from time to time I decided to make a concerted effort to see the other side. I’d like to credit some of my coaching friends and accountability partners for helping me think this through.
One of my colleagues is a college admissions coach and I asked her what she thought about how AI would change that essay writing process for colleges and universities. And after a little research she seemed to think that they would definitely have to come up with some guidelines but that AI was very much like a calculator in that you have to give it something to start with and so in the end whatever came out on paper would still be the student's idea.
Calculators aren’t really AI are they? I mean, yes, they do the work, I suppose. You put in the numbers and usually you need to know the mathematical equation in order to get the correct answer.
Calculators speed up what could otherwise be an arduous process but using one doesn’t guarantee the correct answer. You only need to look at my high school math scores to know this is true.
Is AI really just like a calculator? That analogy really only works up to a point.
There’s a reason you had to show your work in math class. In order to get the right answer you have to know the process. Numbers and formulas matter. You can’t simply put in more numbers and hope for a better answer. But that’s basically how AI works.
With AI the more information you input the more precise the output. The more “correct” it will be.
I made myself give it a try. To find out for myself. Afterall I have been known to be wrong occasionally. Except when it’s just my opinion and then I’m never wrong.”wink wink”
So I opened up ChatGPT and gave it a prompt. It was something like “write a paragraph about the polyvagal theory”.
It very quickly spit out a relatively correct, medium length, mediocre paragraph on the polyvagal theory. And I thought to myself, huh, maybe this is the magic I need to get that book written, that I’ve been meaning to write this year, that I gave myself a deadline of August for and still haven’t written page one.
So ok I can see the appeal. It’s a great first draft. And then I thought about it a little more. It kind of reminded me of when I would do reports for school on things like the Egyptian pyramids and the history of slavery. Back in the day, whenever you started a research paper the first source you went to was the good old Encyclopedia Britanica. It was also the first source listed in the bibliography. And if your topic wasn’t in there you were out of luck.
Today the internet has replaced the encyclopedia as this infinite information resource and now with AI we have a tool that goes one step further and creates encyclopedia entries on demand. In school kids who only used an encyclopedia for their sources didn’t get great grades.
And that’s another question for AI proponents in school settings, how do you credit sources? That’s a different rabbit hole though.
Let’s stick with how AI is being used in online business.
Another challenge for online creators and solopreneurs is marketing and sales pages. Basically everyone tries to do this themselves and then very quickly realizes why these are jobs that get paid big bucks. Because they take skill, creativity and finesse. They can be done but it’s very time consuming. So I was super excited when my online platform began offering these magic page templates. You could take whatever you created, membership, coaching package, webinar and the magic AI robot would create a sales page draft using all the latest best practices. Basically at the click of a button.
I had to give it a try.
So I gave it the copy from one of my test products and clicked create. Honestly this was a case of managing expectations. I definitely failed to do that because I wasn’t super impressed. I wasn’t impressed because it still took a lot of work to rework the copywriting in each section. I got to the point where I just said nope nevermind. Would this be a good template or first draft? Maybe. For me, I find it easier to start from scratch and edit as I go than to have to go back over every little thing and look for mistakes and correct the voice.
And that brings me to my major objection to using AI in content creation. I can see how useful it might be in writing short social media posts. But if longform content like blogs and podcasts are supposed to be platforms for you to showcase your authentic voice and thought leadership “quote unquote” then how is it authentic and or ethical to outsource it to AI. Aren’t you basically downgrading yourself from creator to glorified editor?
I have heard so many female entrepreneurs lament that they don’t know what to say in emails, in posts, in a blog or podcast. They truly believe that they have nothing to talk about.
Authentic voice
I used to struggle with that too. I resisted weekly emails to my list. I spent hours crafting social posts to get followers that never converted to paying customers. I thought no one would want to hear what I had to say. I started this podcast as an experiment and shook off all the anxiety about it because in my mind no one was gonna hear it anyway. At first it was a little difficult to come up with topics. To find guests that fit. And then something shifted.
I got some really great coaching. And then the light bulb went on.
I took a step back and got really clear with myself about who I wanted to be and how I wanted to show up. I basically shed the skin of the person I thought I was supposed to be and let myself be who I am. And in that process I have been able to connect with an inner source of creative inspiration. I never run out of ideas. That’s what an authentic voice is. But you won’t find it in any AI program.
SO Is AI really just like a calculator? Not really. But it is a tool. And how we use tools in a creative space like coaching and entrepreneurship matters. Use it but don’t let it turn you into an encyclopedia britannica - A mile wide and an inch deep.
So I’ll let AI transcribe my words. I’ll let it summarize for me after the creative process is over. But this podcast and all of the copywriting and social media content for savage grace coaching is 100% human in all my flawed glory.
And that’s my work IN for this week.
I hope you found it helpful. If you’re feeling stuck at all as you navigate solo-preneurship, I’m here to help. Go to Savagegracecoaching.com and check out the Clarity Coaching packages. You can even book a call with this 100% human to find the program that works for you!
Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time.
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.
Savage Grace Coaching is all about bringing resilience and burnout recovery. Especially for overwhelmed entrepreneurs, creators and coaches in the fitness industry.
Schedule a free consultation call to see if my brand of actionable accountability is right for you and your business.