The longer I root into life in Glastonbury, where we celebrate the Wheel of the Year, the cycle of the seasons and the natural rhythms of the earth, the more I drop into the energy of the different phases of nature within the year. How things flow and feel in each of them.
Although the light is sloooowwly beginning to return, we are still in the womb of winter here in the Northern hemisphere. According to the astrology, some say the new year doesn’t really start until the next new moon on 21st January, and others share that it’s even later than that, and that energetically we aren’t there until we are reborn at the spring equinox in March.
There are many different systems and cycles, ancient and modern.
There are natural and artificial intelligences that exist to guide and inform us.
Within our modern culture, society, and particularly within the digital landscape – and all the marketing that comes with it–- the Gregorian new year cycle of January 1st begins with a rallying call for self-improvement. My social media is overwhelmingly awash with tips and TikToks for working out, adverts for every supplement and cleanse under the sun, alongside business/life coaches/trainers as far as the eye can see offering courses and programs to make 2023 your best year ever!
Yawn, roll me over and put another log on the fire! On a personal side note, though, I am, in fact, feeling super motivated in regard to my wellbeing after a period of stillness due to injury and a big work project. I was not moving enough. But I know you aren’t here to hear about my latest workout routine, despite a desire to document them all on socials haha – you are here for Social Media For A New Age and what’s coming this year.
Well, aside from the collective marketing melee of January, what I have noticed over the past few years is that something catches fire in terms of collective awareness, something that has been bubbling in the world of social media/tech, often in niche interest circles for months that makes a breakthrough in these first few weeks of January. Something that suddenly everyone is talking about and trying – over the past few years, we have seen ClubHouse and Crypto, and this year it is ChatGPT.
Currently free to use, ChatGPT is fascinating, and I have only just started to play with it and begin to understand what it can do, what it might do and how best to use it personally and professionally to support my clients, contemporaries and community.
ChatGPT Dec 15 Version. Free Research Preview. Our goal is to make AI systems more natural and safe to interact with. Your feedback will help us improve.
It can do a LOT from what I am picking up – from creating bios to poems to guided visualisations, to telling stories, to writing landing page copy! It all depends on the inputs and instructions. So we need to learn how to talk to it to get the best from it (bit like humans, eh?)
And, of course, it doesn’t have emotional intelligence or personality, from what I can see. Give it a couple of years…
It really has a wide range of exciting possibilities and applications, and how people and companies utilise it will be VERY interesting over the coming years. How things will be interwoven, the integration with the digital dimension is real!
I feel like this marks a shift – a turning point – in our relationship with AI and how we interact and engage with it more widely.
In my last article, I wrote about AI for a New Age, which scratched another surface with a quick exploration of AI art, as the Lensa Magic Avatars went viral in November. And unless you want to go and live in the forest and not take part in modern society or culture, AI is knocking on all of our doors.
We use AI all the time and often without even realising it. Take this example, I was told about a genre called ‘Cottagecore’ this week, which is like snug, fairy cottages in the country vibe (Glasto all over!) so I went to Spotify and it curated me a ‘Cottagecore Mix’ of music picked ‘just for me’ in this genre – of course, it’s already got loads of my absolute favourites and new music that is will become new favourites – it is totally DREAMY and one of many a Kdot vibe. Personalised AI is doing a GREAT job here of enhancing my life – it knows me and what I like and has done the legwork of pulling it all together for me within seconds.
I think I mentioned the movie Her in my last article. It is a favourite. It is about an AI assistant, where the lead character, played by Joaquin Phoenix, starts to fall in love with their AI assistant. It is a wonderfully thoughtful and interesting story about consciousness and love and what is possible or what may come in the future. It makes me cry every time! The AI is voiced by Scarlett Johansson, which really personalises the intelligence as it goes on a journey of self-discovery. You can watch a trailer here. Highly recommend if you like movies that make you see the world in a different way.
What I think 2023 will bring, particularly for those of us working with and creating for social media and digital media within our lives and businesses, is a much deeper blending of content and experiences created by AI in collaboration with us. Some people will hand it all over to the AI, but that isn’t the best way to work with it, and I think it will stand out a mile, especially over time. There will be a beautiful meet in the middle, which can save us lots of time. Of course we cannot and must not remove ourselves and our artistry from equation, but to work together? That could be very interesting indeed. And I think that much of what we see will become an amalgamation of the two. If it is not already in some instances.
Is this bad?
Can AI make us/ things / life / the world better?
Sure it can!!!
Could it also be the downfall of humanity?
Of course it can!
Is there a truly grey (or rainbow?) area in the middle of all of this?
Of course there is!
I mean, humanity could very easily be the downfall of humanity. Or an asteroid could be headed this way and AI could save us! Applied well it could help us solve many problems. It is all in the dance of life, the dose, the evolution and application of how we use these tools. Which are game-changing.
ChatGPT is game-changing for content creators and social media.
My mind is still boggling and it will take more time for it all to fully land.
In the meantime, have a look at this google doc, for a more practical example, which shows you how you might turn it into a marketing assistant, with a lesson in ‘prompt engineering’.
After just 6 weeks since release, the technology is being valued in the billions. Of course, it is huge. This is huge. This is part of the evolution. We are here now. Some say AI has been part of our evolution before – and the lost civilisation of Atlantis, which according to Plato's accounts, was highly advanced and renowned for its technological achievements (AI), and Lemuria, which is known as a symbol of the interconnectedness of all living things and natural timelines.
Some say that this time, as is possible with all times, it is an opportunity for us to get the balance right.
The Balance. The Tao. The natural order of the universe.
It is a hugely philosophical debate, particularly when we go to the bigger picture and bring up issues of transhumanism and the singularity, because aside from the practicality of it all, it does bring up a lot of ethical questions.
We need to be open to having the debate, rather than sleepwalk into any kind of catastrophe or other.
But don’t worry, you can trust me to come up with the important questions…
I did ask it, ‘How can we work with AI successfully?' It concluded that:
My vision of Social Media For A New Age in 2023 is that we understand the digital dimension, and the AI environment better alongside our relationship with it, so that we can be mindful of the values that guide our actions, and consider the ethical implications of our choices with how we use AI and show up online.
We are digital citizens and need to wrap our heads around this more and what it means as we move further into this decade.
We need to be aware of the ways in which AI is used and the impact it has on us, how we use it as people, as human beings, and how we collaborate with technology whilst staying in balance with our authenticity and the natural order of the universe.
We need to be open to the conversation, particularly with others who may have different perspectives – not something we are very good at the moment if we look at what is going on in the world right now!
We have creativity, empathy and emotional intelligence – AI does not – and we need to make sure we bring that to the table.
Asking more questions, not always jumping straight into ‘shiny new tech’. (She sayyyssss…. 👀)
I believe that if enough of us work together, guided by our shared values, we can shape the future of social media, of AI and how we use it for good, in ways that benefit us all and that promote the common good.
Is that really too much to ask?
I’d be interested to hear from you below in the comments, how you are feeling about these new advancements in tech…
Does it scare you or excite you?
Are you keen to play with it and use it in your business, in your life?
Or do you want to reject it and stay away?
Perhaps like me, you want to stay mindful, meet somewhere in the middle and find the balance.
‘INCOMING AQUARIAN PARADIGM – What a start to a year that promises to be game-changing, groundbreaking, pioneering and future-oriented!
The 3D Past was Individualistic – the 5D Future is Collaborative – the “Me” Generation is giving way to the “We” Generation.’