I'm AI's Problem Child and I'm Afraid
Leave me alone with my tools. My AI assistant and my curated world. And I won’t ask questions, in front of this giant overhyped piece of shift.
Be very very quiet. I’m AImaxxing, I learned about it on X. Before someone else replaces me, I replace myself with AI. And tell everyone it’s me, no one can tell the difference.
I don’t have to tell you things are strange. Everybody knows things are strange. We’re not just losing work. We don’t know what work even is anymore. The things we create are being copied, remixed, and sold back to us.
You can’t tell what’s real. You can’t tell who made what. You can’t tell if you’re talking to a person, a script, or a system trained on a million other people.
We are informed, entertained, predicted—and slowly replaced.
And what do we do?
We stay inside the AI lines. We personalize it. Optimize it.
We say, ‘Just make it easier. Just make it faster. Just make it mine.’
I’m AI’s problem child. And I’m afraid. I still don’t know if I’m using it right.
Neither does anyone else. My boss doesn’t know what he’s looking for but he knows it’s AI First. And AI told him to give a 30-second speed rap before leaving, while we all try to keep up with the words pouring out:
“Whatever it can do, let it do; THEN let’s figure it out together, once it’s learned everything you do. Together.”
Follow the AI advice from our leader. He signs my paycheck. AI signals my interest in staying here, unless I’m replaceable. After an hour of reviewing where my rogue AI agent went post crazy, I’ve got an hour to write 2500 words.
No way I can do that without super intelligence. So I prompt the answer, but don’t question the answer. This is the answer, and it’s fast. Speed matters, efficiency matters.
There’s no way to do this without AI. They don’t sleep. That’s an advantage. The kind I’ll never have and that kind that makes me a problem. From the beginning, or AI First Principle. Whatever you call it, the only difference between me and another worker, is what we do with AI.
ChatGPT told me that the other day, or my boss emailed it. I confuse the two. His job was done, my job begins. And will it last?
Fighting AI is like swinging in the air, sucking spare oxygen so I can keep breathing in my new, 72-hour AI work weeks. The 996, nine to nine 6 days a week so we survive, because AI gives us the power to do it. That email freaked me out at first, though honestly with all the extra time correcting and babysitting AI, I need more hours to get things done.
I’m not here to add ideas, I’m here to crank out massive volumes of AI-shaped content, see how I work less and do more? Except for all those late-night check-ins with that Agent thing that doesn’t work. No one counts those hours anyway, unless they are saved from 9-5.
I’m following the rules. Deadlines get shorter and expectations higher, that’s probably me being tired. The tools are the change. Optimize yourself and follow closely.
I’m doing the same thing so well, so predictable, things will keep going the same way for a long time. As long as I don’t cross the human redline.
Good enough is, enough. AI is like a word tailor, measuring 2D me. Forget editing, that’s a good draft, chalk it up to saving an hour. Good for me. That’s working so well, I’ll give all first drafts to AI, from what works, not what I think might work. And it always sounds the same. Perfect.
I’m not afraid of my boss, I’m afraid of what’s next. At best I’ll work longer using AI to save me time. At worst I’ll be replaced or found out for using AI to do my work, like I was asked to....
I know I’m a Problem Child. Follow the smarter leader I say, and it’s not my boss. Welcome to the AI Dome, I hope they let me stay here another year. Or stand up to make things a little harder for this brilliance changing my life.
I’ll go along and leave a bit of confusion along the way.
Authors’ Note
I’m the half full AI Optimist, with a little half empty pessimism. When there is no glass at all.
Your voice matters before it’s trained away, your ideas matter before they’re averaged out, your work matters before it becomes data.
There’s you in front of this giant overhyped piece of shift. I don’t want you to smash your devices. I don’t even want you to reject AI.
Remember the original you.
I am not just training material. Am I?