Doing what you love in the age of AI

A quietly radical take on the future of work (aka reasons to be hopeful, and how not to freak out)

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

– from the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (1927)

When my children were small, something shocking happened at the seaside playground we used to frequent. The place had a little cafe which got carefully locked up every night, with staff diligently bolting the metal shutters to the counter and double-locking the door. But one morning the manager came in to discover that thieves had taken a drill to the side of the building during the night and extracted the entire safe through the gaping hole. That’s kind of how it felt to find out about Meta’s great book heist, which I am sure you have heard about by now. According to this investigation by The Atlantic, Meta has reportedly downloaded millions of books (including ten editions of mine) from pirate database LibGen* and used them to train AI. Suddenly I could see that we have all been faffing around worrying about whether AI-generated e-books are going to affect the traditional publishing world and all the while Meta was out with its giant drill stealing all the existing books through a hole in the back of the library.

As someone who has spent countless hours (actually, years) and sacrificed many things to bring my books into the world, part of me is of course as upset about this as anyone, and wants appropriate action to be taken. To that end I have followed the advice of the trade unions, signed the petition and stand in solidarity with fellow my authors and academics. (See below for advice from the Society of Authors and Authors Guild)

However, another part of me is fascinated by the speed at which things are being disrupted and deeply curious about what the AI age might mean in terms of new possibilities for all of us, and how it might take some of the mundane stuff off our plates so we can focus on the issues that really matter.

That curious, hopeful part of me is the part which is writing to you today.

To be honest, as an author I feel pressure to be anti-AI. Of course I am as outraged as anyone else about the blatant piracy and use of our published books, and I have no intention of using AI to generate any of my creative works (other than where AI is automatically integrated into research tools). I also understand that many, many jobs are threatened by the rapidly developing technologies of our time which include AI, and I am aware of the real impact that will have on many lives. In the weeks I have been working on this essay, The Guardian-Observer newspaper has closed, H&M has announced the use of digital clones of models in its ads, and I overheard a cameraman at my local coffee shop talking about how the television industry is on its knees. This is heartbreaking. There are also huge environmental concerns relating to the proliferation of AI, and I for one won’t be wasting water and energy generating a doll image of myself anytime soon.

But I am also founder of an organisation called Do What You Love and I have spent the past fifteen years encouraging people to make the most of emerging opportunities in the face of disruptive change, to not wait for authority to tell them what to do next, and to be brave enough to choose the unconventional path, if that is right for them. This has never felt so essential.

To be hopeful in the face of rapid change is a radical act, which takes courage but opens your eyes to opportunities that only exist right now.

At every point in modern history there has been one crisis or another shaking the ground, but the fundamental challenges and deeper desires of us contemporary humans living in capitalist societies don’t really change that much. Once we realise that accumulating stuff is not a route to happiness, we want more time, more space, less pressure, more joy, more creativity, a stronger sense of belonging, deeper friendships, more connection, more meaning in our lives.

In Desiderata, a beautiful poem by Max Ehrmann written in 1927, between two World Wars and just before The Great Depression, the themes addressed were not so different to the those in popular self-help books today.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness..

– from the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (1927)

Of course everyone’s situation is different, but I have witnessed and supported people navigating transition often enough to know this:

We make changes in our lives either when we are pushed (stressed to breaking point, burned out, disillusioned, overworked and undervalued or something happens to us, like we are made redundant or get ill), or because we are pulled (to a slower, more creative life with more room for deep contemplation, meaningful conversation, art making, joy seeking and so on, perhaps because of an event which has made us realise life is short, and now is the time).

As a result of rapid developments in AI, the push factor is going to become inevitable for millions of people in the coming months and years. But what if AI might also facilitate our response to the pull?

Back to the Meta scandal. I wanted to know what was actually happening in this ‘training of AI’, so I turned to Learning to Flourish in the Age of AI, a recent book by Harvard Professor Stephen M Kosslyn. It explains how generative AI works differently to other computer programmes such as Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word (which “store data in specific places in a computer’s memory, and then operate on that data according to specific rules”¹).

According to Professor Kosslyn,

‘(The new AIs) are based on artificial neural networks, which are loosely modelled on how the brain works. These artificial networks are arranged into layers, and each unit is connected to many other units in the adjacent layers. These connections can be positive or negative. If one unit has a positive connection to another, activating the first unit leads it to try to activate the second unit. In contrast, if one unit has a negative connection to another, activating the first unit leads it to try to prevent the second one from being activated. There are many, many, many such connections among the artificial neurons. Moreover, the connections vary in their strengths: The greater the strength, the more forcefully one unit either activates or inhibits the other, depending on whether the connection is positive or negative…

The neural network as a whole acts as a kind of giant filter: A set of “input units” is stimulated from the outside (e.g., as occurs when we ask an AI a question), which activates or inhibits the connected units, in accordance with the nature of the connections. The wave of activation flows forward, and sometimes laps backward, percolating through the network and ultimately producing a specific output.

The particular output that results from a specific input depends on the nature and the strengths of the connections among the units. What determines the strengths of the connections? In a word, training.

When an AI is being trained to process language, the network is initially given massive amounts of text and it tries to predict successive “tokens,” which are the smallest unit of text that the network processes (such as short words, parts of words, or symbols). The model relies on the preceding tokens to predict the next one… Once the network gets very good at such anticipation, the networks are trained on more specific materials to “fine tune” them… This transformation process allows the network to give the illusion of “making sense” of the input.”²

Learning this was eye opening for me (and not just because of that word ‘illusion’). I had naively assumed that the kind of AI being trained on our books worked like an advanced Google, regurgitating large chunks of text that are already out in the world, but actually it’s more like a sophisticated pattern predictor, honing its accuracy by chewing up sample after sample of existing information, and forming new things based on what the pattern suggests should probably come next. I guess that is why this type of AI is called ‘generative’. As long as it’s predictable, it’s easy.

But life is not always predictable. Humans thrive in the grey areas, the ambiguity, the vague, the contextual, the unsaid – and we do this because we don’t just use language to navigate chaos. To various extents we each navigate different situations using a combination of intuition, the body’s response to its environment, our ability to read a room, our particular constellation of background, relationship and life experience, and the ancestral wisdom we carry within us. As humans we can also get better at all of these things which AI cannot (yet?) do by becoming more and more awake to the world.

Professor Kosslyn went on to say “…We rely on specific facets of our brains and bodies that can give rise to hunches and intuitions, which would require an AI to extrapolate beyond its training set… AIs, not having emotions or bodies, cannot make use of this sort of mechanism…”³

This highlights that there are many things that we humans are good at, which AIs have not yet mastered, including:

• Responding in open-ended situations where we need to consider the context, including offering leadership and managing crises

• Offering love, support, encouragement, feedback and advice in a way which takes into account the whole person and the current situation (emotional intelligence)

• Building trust and strong human relationships

• Dealing with sensitive situations which require a deep understanding of nuance (cultural, political etc) often only achieved through lived experience

• Things done by hand, like working with the land, creating artisanal products, fixing broken things etc.

• Building and maintaining places for people to live, connect and gather in real life (The timing of the pandemic was uncanny in many ways, just ahead of all this, as if to show us what life is like when we are separated from other human contact.)

• Delivering body work and energy therapies

• Communicating inner wisdom

• Giving hugs

Your uniqueness, your problem-solving ability, your creativity and your empathy, along with your human frailties and your vulnerabilities, are your greatest strengths in the future world of work, because humans will never not want to connect with others who make them feel seen, heard and understand, others who offer thoughtful solutions to problems they understand because they too are human, and others who create the kind of art that resonates because of the living that had to be done to make that creation possible.

So if you find yourself worrying about the impact on AI on the future of your work, first remember this:

• You are resilient (just look at all you have been through)

• You are brave (just look at what used to scare you, that doesn’t scare you any more)

• You are smart and resourceful (just look at what people come to you for)

• You are capable (just look at the life you have built in the face of the insane odds of survival on this wild spinning planet)

• You are adaptable (just count the number of times you have experienced change before)

• You can learn new things and be responsible (just look at how you handled that new job, or parenting, or that community role when you had no idea what you were doing)

• You make art that matters (what you label as art is up to you and your ego, but you create art just by living your life and expressing yourself)

Secondly, remember that there is a chance that this could be a real opportunity to liberate yourself from work you don’t love, and open up time and space for work that you do. (Scroll down for some journalling questions to help you think through what this could mean for you).

Stop worrying and start building. Build assets. Build skills. Build IP. Build (and become an active part of) community. Build networks of people you trust. Build loyalty. Build flexibility. Build your email list. Build something real, and tangible, or digital and sellable. Build things that can sustain you even when you rest, or fall ill, or want to see the world. Building things that you own can help you build confidence in your own future.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

– from the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (1927)

Curious about how much my children knew about AI, I asked them, What does AI do? Without hesitating our eleven year-old responded, It helps you.

This got me thinking:

What if AI could take over or ease all the parts of work we find exhausting (the repetitive, dull stuff which saps our energy) and free us from the need to be constantly ‘on’ in our worklife, or deal with everyday distractions, so that we have more energy to focus on the work we really want to do? What if AI was in fact a solution to burnout? What difference would that make?

What if AI could lighten your cognitive load, so you can apply yourself to tackling the major societal and environmental challenges of our time, to building meaningful relationships, to creating art, to doing what you love? Mightn’t that be a good thing?

What if AI made your current job obsolete in a way which forced you to take the leap you have been dreaming of for years, but have been too afraid to do? What good might come from that?

(Important note: In asking these questions, I am not condoning the way AI is being trained, or the energy it consumes, or doubting the inevitable impact on certain kinds of jobs. I am just being curious about whether there is an upside to the very obvious downsides.)

And if that is the case, what does that mean for the careers advice we are giving ourselves and our children? Because the careers advice we were given sure isn’t going to be relevant – in many cases it already isn’t. Responding to a note I posted about this on social media, Sarah Gosling, Chief Executive of Central Foundation Schools of London, replied,

“I run a foundation working with young people in two inner city secondary schools and the future of work they are facing is nothing like the world I experienced at their age. So many of them have insights and ideas of work that fit so well with ‘do what you love’ and I am in awe of their vision at 15/16/17… Yet they also talk of the smallness of opportunity, the limitations on them, how little they see society expects they will achieve. It brings with it a self-fulfilling prophecy unless they face it down. And facing it down takes courage. It takes things falling their way in a life stacked against them. It takes people like you (and I hope me) speaking of a different way to work to challenge the limitations society sets.”

Perhaps this is a real opportunity to transform the way we think about careers advice. In fact, what if our notion of a ‘career’ is already becoming something very different entirely? Oxford Languages defines ‘career’ as ‘an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress’ which suggests something linear, specialist and long-term. But what that is already an outdated definition, and a career is already becoming less linear and more like a web of connected opportunities that use and enhance our skills in different ways, and interconnect with each other, based on work that brings us joy?

The idea of a ‘portfolio career’ (where you are involved in multiple projects or roles at once) is not new, but perhaps AI will reduce or remove the volume of mundane, time-consuming, or stress-inducing parts (such as multitasking, scheduling, managing multiple deadlines etc) and in doing so, make this a viable option for more people. Perhaps the reality is we will need to keep shifting and evolving every few years as technology develops, which can be an intimitating prospect, but can also open up possibilities for us to follow one inspiring trail of work after another, based on what is interesting to us and relevant to the world in that moment.

‘Interesting’ is one of my favourite English words. The Japanese equivalent, omoshiroi (面白い), is written using the characters for face or front side (面) and the colour white, like a blank piece of paper (白い). The etymological dictionary Gogen Yurai actually describes the breakdown of the characters as ‘in front of your eyes’ and something being ‘bright and clear’. I love this description. To discover what we are interested in, and to stay interested in it, we just have to keep paying attention to what is clear and bright in front of our faces.

This particular moment in time, right here, right now, with the people in our orbit, offers a set of opportunities. The particular life stage we are in, with its particular circumstances, and our particular vault of wisdom and experience gathered up to this point, offer a set of opportunities. And the particular state of the world right now similarly offers a set of opportunities, perhaps related to the challenges of humanity, or the opportunities of emerging technology, or something else that until this particular moment we were not even aware of. There are opportunities everywhere, and it is even more exciting when you consider that the constellation of these opportunities is always changing, with each arising ‘now’.

AI is already here, and evolving fast, so while we absolutely need to protect our rights as creative people, we would also do well to look for the opportunities that AI offers us to clear the decks for more of the work we love, and use the time we have right now to strengthen our skills, prepare ourselves for potential change and enjoy what we are doing while we can.

Every moment, every day, every new project and every new opportunity invites us to approach it with a beginner’s mind, in the knowledge that we stand upon everything that has gone before – all of our experience, resources, connections, lessons learnt from mistakes made, and all the rest of it. Nothing is wasted. Everything leads somewhere, even if we don’t yet know where.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

– from the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (1927)

We are alive. We are here. We are blessed to be on Earth at this particular moment in history, with this particular opportunity. Even though the tech bros aren’t consulting us on this particular era change, we still have agency with the decisions we make about our own trajectories.

We need radical compassion and open-eyed action. We are being called to show up with the soul of a therapist and the heart of an activist. May we lead with light as we venture forth, together. The time is now. There is only now. Are you ready?

All rise. There is much to be done.

A few journalling questions for you

Journalling your thoughts on any topic can help you discover reasons to be hopeful, and help you to not freak out in the face of imminent change or a step into the unknown (which can be scary for all of us). This topic is no different, so here are a few questions to ponder. Please do feel free to share any or all responses in the comments, or restack this with your thoughts to encourage others into this vital conversation. I would love to hear your take on this and what the opportunities might be for you.

• What is the worst case scenario for the future of your work in this age of AI? How could you use the time NOW to prepare for that (knowing that you will be in a minority of people who are actually thinking carefully about this, instead of burying their heads in the sand, or not even realising that the working world is changing at an unprecedented pace)

• What is the best case scenario for the future of your work in this age of AI? How could you use the time NOW to prepare for that? Consider the long view. Depending on your age now, contemplate how you would like to spend your days a year from now? Five years from now? Twenty years from now? Fifty years from now? What really matters to you, and how can you leverage the AI revolution to get more time for what you actually want to spend your precious days doing?

• What do you already have that you can use to help you thrive regardless of how AI changes the world of work? (e.g. experience, enthusiasm, ideas, qualifications, skills, savings to invest in training, any size of online following, in-real-life connections, access to training in the job you currently do, a community to support you etc)

• What opportunities are presenting themselves to you right now? What is possible because of this particular moment, life stage and time in history? What can you start or carry on building, right now?

• What might become an opportunity in the near future, and how can you prepare for that?

• How might doing what YOU love be of benefit to others in an AI-present world?

Any questions for me?

Do you have any questions about doing what you love? You can ask on our upcoming LIVE Ask-Me-Anything Q&A / Group Mentoring on May 2 (6pm UK time) - this is for members of my private community SoulCircle. (If you’re not a member yet you can join here - it’s wonderful).

As a member of SoulCircle you’ll also get an invitation to our next Late Spring Live Writing Circle on May 14 (7pm UK time), a warm welcome to the loveliest writing community and weekly inspiration in your inbox every Monday. Right now you can get a special discount on annual subscriptions here.

Community matters more than ever. Come and join this very special one.

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Protecting your work - advice for authors

Advice from the Society of Authors (UK)

• Find out if your works have been included - Check to see if your works are included on the LibGen database

• The Society of Authors has coordinated an open letter that will be sent to Lisa Nandy demanding that Meta be held to account. You too can add your name here.

• Write to Meta and assert your rights. The Authors Guild in the US has provided a template – see below.

• Write to your MP about the issue of AI. You can use the Society of Authors’ Writers Write service to make your feelings known about the Government's approach to AI legislation.

Advice from the Authors’ Guild (US)

• Send a formal notice: If your books are in the LibGen dataset, send a letter to Meta and other AI companies stating they do not have the right to use your books. Here is a template you can use.

• Join the Authors Guild: You should join the Guild and support our joint advocacy to ensure that the writing profession remains alive and vibrant in the age of AI. We give authors a voice, and there is power in numbers. We can also help you ensure that your contracts protect you against unwanted AI use of your work. Join today.

• Protect your works: Add a “NO AI TRAINING” notice on the copyright page of your works. For online work, you can update your website’s robots.txt file to block AI bots. The Authors Guild offers practical resources to help shield your content from AI scrapers.

• Get Human Authored certification: Distinguish your work in an increasingly AI-saturated market with the Authors Guild’s certification program. This visible mark verifies your book was created by a human, not generated by AI. Get certified.

• Stay informed. Sign up for the free Guild biweekly newsletter to keep updated on lawsuits and legislation that could impact you and your rights. The legal landscape is changing rapidly, and we are keeping close watch. Subscribe here.

Note from The Authors Guild: The Authors Guild is a plaintiff in the class action lawsuit against OpenAI, along with John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci, George R.R. Martin, and 13 other authors, but the claims are made on behalf of all US authors whose works have been ingested into GPT. You don’t need to be a named plaintiff to benefit or receive damages if you qualify as part of the class. If you have books published in the US you can register for the Author’s Guild and be part of the class action lawsuit, even if you do not reside in the US. You can read more about that here.

*CORRECTION: This article initially referred to ‘LibSyn’ instead of LibGen in error. Apologies for any confusion.

Further reading

• Learning to Flourish in the Age of AI by Stephen M Kosslyn (Routledge)

• The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman (Vintage)

• Freedom Seeker: Live more. Worry less. Do what you love. by Beth Kempton (Hay House)

• Do What You Love: the life-changing e-course (30% off for readers of this essay!)

Upgrade to paid to join my friendly writing community SoulCircle, for year-round inspiration and support, beautiful Live Writing Circles and more.

Images: Photos by Holly Bobbins

1. Learning to Flourish in the Age of AI by Harvard Professor Stephen M Kosslyn (Routledge) p.4

2. ibid p.4

3. ibid p.5