To AI or Not
- S B
- Oct 5
- 4 min read
I was recently in a conversation with a director of HR about AI adoption. As I listened to her speak excitedly about the new AI tools being deployed across the organization, I smiled. I also found myself reflecting on how AI had once been something secluded from most employees. While AI outputs were widely consumed and dashboards routinely viewed, the technology itself remained confined to conversations within tech and IT teams.
After the conversation ended, I sat back and thought about how far AI has come in my relatively short lifetime. More importantly, I considered the magnitude of the discourse around AI, especially on platforms like LinkedIn.
The Divided Discourse
There are AI evangelists. There are AI critics. There are AI skeptics. There are even hostile voices.
There are books such as The AI Con that attempt to dismantle the entire industry. Others, like Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick, encourage thoughtful and optimistic engagement with the technology. A pragmatic approach is to read both or similar works to better understand both sides of the divide. As with many things, two truths can coexist in the AI conversation.
To AI or Not: The Central Question
Despite where one's allegiance lies, the question remains: Should I AI or not? Or, to ask more directly, should I participate in the AI revolution? Participation might seem compulsory given the company-wide adoption of AI tools across industries, but personal adoption firmly remains a choice.
Does active participation mean using ChatGPT to search for recipes, making clips with AI video models, reading books about AI, or simply existing on LinkedIn? Does it mean allowing your personal data and online activity to be used to train AI models like ChatGPT, or platforms such as LinkedIn?
AI participation looks and feels different for many people. There is no right or wrong way to engage. The key is to be informed, and to interact with the technology in a way that aligns with your own comfort level.
Why Participate Now
My recommendation is that you should participate in the AI transition. Not only to stay up to date on current developments, but because I believe this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live through a major societal shift in technology.
In my honest opinion, most of the AI companies active today won't be around five years from now. Most of the voices currently speaking about AI won't be engaged with the field two or three years from now, once the novelty has worn off and AI becomes a routine part of everyday life. Some will lose interest. Others will move on to new topics. And the AI content itself will likely return to being highly technical and mostly followed by practitioners, as it was in the early days.
The Benefits of AI Participation
Active participation in AI activities today is generally beneficial. If you haven’t already explored AI, you might consider integrating a chatbot into your workflow, experimenting with creative tools like image or video generators, or trying AI-powered productivity apps.
While participation does carry some risk, such as exposure to AI-generated misinformation or potential overuse, the consequences of engaging with the technology are mostly positive and include the following:
AI and digital literacy
By participating in the AI transition, you naturally become more fluent in the terminology surrounding the technology. You quickly learn what AI is capable of and where it still needs improvement.
First-hand experience
By adopting tools yourself, you gain direct exposure. This becomes especially important as you sift through mountains of content debating whether AI models are just parrots, effective collaborators, or digital noise. First-hand experience allows you to determine how the technology actually influences you.
Contribution to the field
Participation gives you access to AI tools and their developers, while allowing you to influence conversations in the broader community. For example, users recently pointed out that some popular AI models were degrading in quality. These observations turned out to be credible, with major providers later confirming performance issues in their models.
Knowing what you're paying for
As AI tools mature and companies clarify their business models, participation helps you make smarter decisions. The market is becoming increasingly stratified, with freemium, mid-tier, and premium services now common. Trial periods often exist, giving you a chance to evaluate what you are missing or not missing before you commit.
The Market Evolution
Despite its recency, the AI market is already maturing. We’re seeing front-runners in some niche AI spaces replaced by tech giants with more money and scale. Case in point: Google’s takeover of the AI video market. As the technology both plateaus and matures, we can expect more consolidation and less competition.
On a more personal scale, as we all become fluent with prompts and how to craft them, the hacks and tricks will disappear from our social media feeds. The litany of AI voices will shrink, and AI will become an expected competency rather than a new area for upskilling. This is one reason it’s professionally wise to engage now, while we are still learning collectively.
I Hope You Participate
Participate today.
Participation will give you stories to tell the next generation, not only about what life was like before ChatGPT, but also how you transitioned through it.
As the ethics debates continue, and the necessary conversations about AI adoption, regulation, implementation, upskilling, and importance populate your feed, don’t skim or scroll. Stop and engage.
Today’s participation determines tomorrow’s AI standards.
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"AI is the tool, but the vision is human." — Sophia B.
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I’m exploring how generative AI is reshaping storytelling, science, and art — especially for those of us outside traditional creative industries.
About the Author
Sophia Banton works at the intersection of AI strategy, communication, and human impact. With a background in bioinformatics, public health, and data science, she brings a grounded, cross-disciplinary perspective to the adoption of emerging technologies.
Beyond technical applications, she explores GenAI’s creative potential through storytelling and short-form video, using experimentation to understand how generative models are reshaping narrative, communication, and visual expression.
