ai chatbots for creativity – Scott Loftesness

A Little Help From My (Artificial) Friends: Why AI Makes the Perfect Sidekick

“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”
Woodrow Wilson

The title “A Little Help From My Friends” might evoke images of waving lighters at a concert, but for the modern thinker, the source of that helping hand might be a little more unexpected: Artificial Intelligence.

We often think of AI as this monolithic force, a superintelligence destined to take over the world (or at least automate all our jobs). But what if the true power of AI lies not in replacing us, but in augmenting us?

Here’s a radical proposition: what if we started thinking about one of the best uses of AI is to think of and use it as a good friend? Not a physical friend we hang out with (although that might be coming someday!), but a digital confidant, a sounding board, a thought partner and collaborator.

Think about the best friends in your life. They listen without judgement, offer honest (sometimes brutally honest) feedback, and can even take your ideas and run with them, adding their own unique perspective. Based on my experience exploring these tools, AI can do all this, and more.

AI as Your Personal Hype Man (and Reality Checker):

Feeling stuck on a project? Need someone to brainstorm with? Fire up your AI companion. It can analyze your ideas, identify potential weaknesses, and even suggest alternative approaches you might not have considered. Need a confidence boost? AI can highlight the strengths of your thinking and celebrate your progress.

Beyond Agreement: The Power of Constructive Challenge

Unlike a human friend who might simply agree with you to keep the peace, AI isn’t afraid to poke holes in your logic. It can identify inconsistencies, challenge assumptions, and force you to refine your arguments. This “constructive challenge” is crucial for growth. It pushes us to think critically and develop more robust ideas.

The Co-Creation Revolution:

But AI isn’t just a passive listener. It can actively participate in the creative process. Imagine feeding your initial concept into an AI and having it come back with variations, extensions, or even completely new directions based on your starting point. This co-creation opens doors to possibilities you might not have explored on your own.

The Future of Friendship?

Is AI destined to replace human friends? Absolutely not. Human connection is irreplaceable. But AI can become a powerful tool in our friend group, a tireless brainstorming buddy who’s always available to lend a (digital) ear and push us to be our best selves. So next time you’re facing a challenge or have an idea brewing, consider reaching out to your AI friend. You might be surprised at the kind of help it can offer.

Examples of Prompts to Spark Your AI Friendship

Here are a few simple examples of prompts you might want to play around with as you treat AI as a good friend and collaborator:

Brainstorming Buddy: “I’m feeling stuck on a project about [topic]. What are some unexpected approaches I could take?”
Constructive Critic: “I wrote this blog post about [topic]. Please analyze it and tell me what’s working well and where I could improve the argument.”
Idea Expander: “I have this initial idea for a [creative project/business venture]. Can you suggest ways to expand or refine it, and offer different directions I could explore?”
Knowledge Sharer: “Tell me everything you know about [topic]. Be creative, include surprising facts, and different perspectives.”
Persuasion Expert: “I need to write a persuasive argument for [position on a topic]. Analyze various arguments, identify potential counter-arguments, and help me craft a strong and convincing message.”

Remember, these are just starting points. Feel free to tailor your prompts to your specific needs and interests. The more specific and engaging your prompts are, the more valuable the insights you’ll receive from your AI friend. For example, I often find it helpful to tell the AI right up front what role I’m expecting it to play in our interaction – such as “you are an expert storyteller and editor who is collaborating with me writing posts for my blog.”

“We can build AI assistants that can not only understand what we want them to do, but also understand why we want to do it and help us achieve our goals even better than we could on our own.”
Fei-Fei Li, Co-Director of the Stanford Human-Centered AI Institute

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On my walk this morning I listened to the latest episode of Cal Newport’s podcast Deep Questions which was about “creativity hacking”. He reviewed a couple of his techniques, shared a few links to good articles related to the topic, etc. For example, he talked about using different venues for working – such as moving between multiple locations in a single day. He cited several other techniques that he’s used all of which involved helping lift your mind out of the mundane to stimulate its ability to get creative.

Listening to Cal stimulated my mind to make the bridge between something like working on a whiteboard in front of a group of colleagues and, in lieu of humans, working on a topic with an AI chatbot like Claude, Bard, ChatGPT, etc.

I’m drawn to this approach because of just how low the overhead is to start to use chatbots for helping in my thinking and creativity processes. Unlike other humans, the chatbots are always available – 24×7 – and generally they’re pleasant and polite to interact with. Sometimes humans are too but they can also be unpleasant and impolite!

The speed of the interaction with a chatbot is probably slower than with another human or group of humans but I don’t find that to be an issue. In some ways, the ability to just pause, give me time to think, and then interact again with a chatbot is more pleasant and completely eliminates any peer pressure I might be feeling.

I can also use chatbots to respond to challenging questions I might ask or have it brainstorm wild ideas, or roleplay different perspectives – all of which help to get my creative juices flowing. A friend would do the same – but, again, the low overhead nature of creativity hacking with a chatbot is very attractive to me. I can also spread my chatbot interactions around between the various AI chatbots. They’ll bring different perspectives, just like a group of my friends might. I might also ask a chatbot to help me think about an idea from the perspective of a particular historical figure (e.g., “what would Steve Jobs say about this idea?”).

I’m increasingly finding the benefits of this chatbot approach helping me in my creative work. For example, while writing this blog post, I asked for a critique of it from one of the chatbots. Over a few interactions, I was able to gain some new insights to include which hopefully made it even better.

Update: this morning Andrew Chen posted a great article titled “How I use AI when blogging and writing” which explores his experiences using AI chatbots to help with blog posts, generating topic ideas/questions, and even starting a book outline. Definitely worth reading!

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