Island Notes from A Woofer by Melody S Wolfe – The Problem Isn’t AI… We are.

Lately I’ve been seeing post after post about AI.
“AI is ruining creativity.”
“AI is using too much water.”
“AI this.” “AI that.”
And somewhere in the comments there’s always somebody announcing they would never use artificial intelligence.
Okay… while posting that opinion on Facebook… whose algorithm has been using artificial intelligence for years.
The irony is almost as funny as the comment section.
Don’t get me wrong. As a creative, AI scared me at first too. I had one of those dramatic moments where I thought, “Well… I guess that’s it. We’re all getting replaced.”
Then I walked into my studio.
My paintbrush was still there.
It hasn’t moved since.
AI still can’t pick it up for me.
It can’t mix paint because I suddenly decided the turquoise needed a little more green. It can’t spend six hours staring at a canvas wondering if I’ve ruined it. It can’t remember growing up by the reef or what the mangroves smell like after it rains.
Those things are still mine.
What it can do is save me time.
When possible I still love to write in notebooks first. Real pen. Real paper. Then I snap a picture and ask ChatGPT to type it because my handwriting and spelling have been arguing with each other my whole life.
I use it to clean up emails.
To build templates so my team isn’t answering the same questions fifty times a week.
To help organize the hundred ideas bouncing around my ADHD brain.
I use it like a very patient assistant when needed.
I don’t use it to tell me who I am.
Now here’s where I agree with the critics.
Everything is starting to sound the same. Everything is starting to look the same.
You can hear it. You can most certainly see it.
The perfectly polished paragraphs.
The motivational speeches that somehow say absolutely nothing.
The captions that all sound like they came from the same person.
And yes… those famous long dashes that have become the unofficial mascot of AI writing.
Sometimes I read a post and think, “That wasn’t written by Christina. That was written by Chris… Chris GPT.”
We’ve reached a point where people are outsourcing their personality or faking their personality.
That’s the part that makes me sad.
Not because of AI.
Because we all have our own stories to tell, and instead we’re asking a computer to sound like everyone else.
I even have this conversation with my own team. Sometimes they’ll send me a caption that’s obviously AI, and I’ll tell them, “Use it if you need a spark. Let it give you ideas. But then close it and write like you.” Borrow the structure if you want. Fix your grammar. Organize your thoughts. But don’t copy and paste a personality that isn’t yours.
And then there’s the water argument.
Yes, AI uses water and energy. That’s a real issue absolutely worth talking about.
But sometimes I read the comments and wonder if people think ChatGPT is the only thing plugged into a data center.
Every Google search.
Every Netflix binge.
Every hour spent scrolling Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, streaming music, backing up photos to the cloud, or asking Alexa what the weather is.
All of it runs on massive data centers that consume electricity and, in many cases, water for cooling.
If we’re going to have the conversation, let’s have the whole conversation.
Technology has an environmental footprint.
The question isn’t whether AI exists.
The question is whether we’re willing to be more intentional about how we use all of it.
The truth is, AI is just another tool.
A hammer can build a home or break a window.
A camera can capture a memory or fake a moment.
AI can help you organize your thoughts, translate an email, solve a problem, or save you an hour.
Or it can slowly replace your own voice if you let it.
That’s not AI’s decision.
That’s ours.
I don’t miss the world before AI.
I miss your personality.
I miss when people wrote like themselves. A little messy. A little funny. A little too long. A little Creole slipping into the middle of a sentence because that’s just how they talk.
I miss hearing people’s actual thoughts instead of the version they think everyone wants to hear.
AI isn’t going anywhere.
Neither is social media.
So maybe the goal isn’t to use less technology.
Maybe it’s to use it more wisely.
Read a book.
Paint something.
Cook a meal from scratch.
Call your grandmother.
Go outside.
Leave your phone inside once in a while.
And when you do use AI…
Don’t let it replace the very thing that makes you interesting.
AI didn’t make us stop reading books.
AI didn’t make us stop having conversations.
AI didn’t make us copy and paste our personalities.
We did.
Maybe it’s time we started sounding and looking like ourselves again. We miss you!
Xo Melody

Island Notes from a Woofer is a column by Melody Sanchez Wolfe, an artist, writer, wedding planner, entrepreneur, mother of three, and proud San Pedrana who notices a little too much and writes about it. Blending island life, culture, humor, nostalgia, community conversations, random observations, personal experiences, art, business, relationships, social commentary, and whatever else happens to wander through her beautifully chaotic neurodivergent brain that week, this column is part island diary, part storytelling, part open journal, and part love letter to San Pedro – the old, the new, the beautiful, the frustrating, and everything in between.