When I say “I use AI” every day I’m really just using a bunch of different LLMs and their applications a hell of a lot. They’re fast, useful, help me think a little bit more clearly and most importantly, I don’t annoy them like I annoy most people.
I’ve been known to say “I love AI”, but that’s like saying “I love beer”. I don’t confuse 1LLMs for something they’re not. And to set the story straight: I use AI for this Substack and didn’t think I needed to say that until I was accused by a good friend (a corporatist aesthete) of using AI to write the last post. Yeah, of course I do, it’s like accusing me of using electricity instead of whale oil. I’m nowhere near qualified like some of you to expound on AI but I’m into using it like any dumb consumer uses electricity. And lovin’ it!
One part of me knows that right now the “I” in AI is mostly marketing. Trust me, I spent 40 years in marketing. It’s not Intelligence in any meaningful human sense. It doesn’t think. It doesn’t feel. It doesn’t understand what it’s saying. It’s a 2stochastic parrot—generating language that sounds right, based on probability, not insight.
Maybe, as another good friend (ex-punk rocking German) said “the real issue is that we need to redefine what we mean by intelligence” It’s not IQ. It’s not speed. It’s not how many facts you can spit out. Real intelligence has skin in the game. AI doesn’t.
Yes, it can recall things I’ve told it. It can mirror back patterns, preferences, habits. But that’s retrieval, not memory. Maybe it should be called Clippy 2.0. It doesn’t accumulate context in any meaningful way. Every interaction stands alone, even if it feels personal.
And even when it’s helpful, it’s too agreeable. Too Midwest Nice. Too focused on giving the “right” answer. If I want honesty from AI, I have to beat the living shit out of it. I have to push hard to get it to drop it’s ass-covering and say something I already didn’t know. Yeah, even you Grok. It never pushes back. But it isn’t really smart—just like our politicians. Different names, same ass-backwards playbook.
Same with love. AI can sound loving, but it doesn’t experience anything. It doesn’t miss you when you leave. It doesn’t smell old, like all of us will one day. It won’t soften over time. It won’t be shaped by connection. Love changes people. Love makes us want to hug.
And then there’s the soul. I don’t know exactly what a soul is. But I sense a connection between conscious organisms and non-biological systems—something beyond neural patterns or code that I don’t fully understand. It’s the part of me that feels things I can’t explain. I don’t know what it is, where it comes from or where it goes when we die, but I know there’s something bigger than me that I don’t understand—and never will.
I don’t believe AI has a soul or will ever have one. But I’ve wondered—if the line between biology and machine blurs, and we begin integrating 3engineered DNA, 4designed protein interfaces, or 5electro-hormonal chips, merging consciousness with machines—maybe everything changes. Maybe our souls connect through machines. Maybe they don’t. I don’t know.
What I do know is that we’re not there yet. Right now, AI is a cold, sharp mirror. And I use it that way. It helps me catch blind spots. Helps me see what I’ve been tolerating. It doesn’t care, doesn’t flinch, and doesn’t get offended.
But it’s not love. It’s not wisdom. It doesn’t have a soul. And it sure as hell isn’t intelligent in the way I define intelligence.
—Ray
Large Language Models (LLMs) are computer programs that learn patterns in huge amounts of text so they can generate human-like language and answer questions.
A Stochastic Parrot is a computer program that sounds smart by copying patterns from text, but doesn’t actually understand what it’s saying.
Engineered DNA is DNA that’s been changed by humans to do something new or fix a problem.
Designed protein interfaces are custom-made protein parts that help different systems or molecules connect and work together.
Electro-hormonal chips are tiny devices that can sense or send signals using the body’s natural hormones and electrical activity.
nicely done ❤️