I fell into an existential crisis last week, and unfortunately I can't ignore it away.

The whole thing kicks off with networking.

I spend a few days connecting with new people, and I keep getting sent to sites that are so personality-devoid and it’s effing obvious they are fully AI-built:

🤖 the same blah beige background
🤖 identical hairline-bordered cards, over and over in tidy grids
🤖 everything numbered 01, 02, 03, even when nothing’s in order

So I close the tab, bc the trust factor is completely gone. (If I’m doing that, so is everyone else)

Then I spend a whole day at Squarespace Circle Day online.

As a Gold Tier Circle pro, I go in order to stay on top of all things SQuarespace for my clients.

This year it’s alllll AI, plus the assumption baked in that of course we all want more generative AI in our work.

The product launch shows Squarespace is heading face-first into more and more Gen AI, and then amongst all the other AI-friendly panels, there’s one on vibe coding an app (which is a whole other conversation, one that has my ears perked about security and reliability).

By the end I’ve got the ick sooooo badly.

The two things keeping me alive are the live chat – where a LOT of designers are similarly grossed out – and immediately ditching the panels to dive face-first into creative work.

And then there’s my inbox.

I get a daily newsletter called Techpresso, which gives me the headlines + a little bit more about what’s up in tech news.

This is what I’ve been seeing lately 🫠

So my existential crisis:

I’ve developed a craving for Werther’s Originals. (Ok, an addiction.)

While doing puzzles. Which I need my reading glasses for.

Do I now need to find a senior living center???

Whoops 😬 that's a different existential crisis. (Though I would be into the weekly Bingo).

Back to the one at hand:

Do I now have to become an AI web designer?

Because if that’s what it takes to keep doing what I love, I’m going to legit have to figure out something else to do with my life.

I’m not against AI as a concept, and I do use it.

Sparingly.

Like for organizing my pinball-machine ADHD thoughts before I write an email. (Yes, like this one.)

But becoming and AI web designer means going ALL in.

A few years ago, I was 100% on board.

I was jazzed about the ways we could outsource to AI, ways it could connect and talk to my tech things, taking some mental load off my plate.

Over the last year or so, though, I've been getting an uneasy feeling in my belly.

The tech and culture around AI has developed in a breakneck speed – but in what direction?

When you start learning about this stuff, you can't ignore it anymore:

• the communities being destroyed by mega data centers
• the environmental damage
• data privacy and security issues
• how reliant on (and honestly subservient to) our tech overlords we’re all becoming
• and what overuse is doing to our brains as a society as we outsource our thinking

With both my cheese shop (supporting small farmers and makers) and my current business (supporting small business owners), I have structured my work to make at least a teensy positive contribution.

I’d like to think I make positive contributions elsewhere, too – to my community, to society, to my family, to myself.

Turning my business headfirst into AI does NOT feel like that.

And then, recently, I did find a little hope.

If you’ve been on this list for any amount of time, you know I’m a data privacy freak.

And last week, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay a megasized $25 billion penalty for abusing consumer privacy.

WOOOT!

And from reading Stolen Focus, I discovered the Center for Humane Technology, started by actual tech bigwigs.

It’s a nonprofit that brings influential leaders together to steer tech development toward humanity’s best interests – and they just refocused their efforts toward AI.

So there’s def pushback happening, which is encouraging! We just don’t know what it adds up to. Yet.

And my mind is still swirling and whirling.

Next year, will everyone be clamoring for AI sites?

Will human-created things have more value?

Is it even possible to make a positive contribution if I stay in the lane I’ve built?

I know I’m not the only one. It’s affecting people across every industry.

Look, Reader, I’m sorry for the mega-downer email this week.

I'm wrestling pretty hard over here and I still don’t have any answers.

Where's your head at?

When it comes to AI, what’s a net positive for you?

And what gives you the ick?

I want to be able to have honest, nuanced conversations about this.

Are you down for that? I'd love to hear where you land on all this stuff.

Hope to hear back,