I Can't Afford to Be Afraid of AI

I want to be clear about something before we go any further: I am not an AI professional. I don't build models, I don't train systems, I don't work in tech. I am a neurodivergent sole owner and operator of a small business, and I use AI professionally. Those are very different things — and the confusion between them is part of why this conversation is so hard to have honestly.

Here is what AI has actually done for me: helped me build a website, open an LLC, learn Canva, develop ideas through iterative back-and-forth, organize thoughts that don't always move in straight lines, strategize, and support my marketing. As someone running every part of this business alone, I want to be direct — it wouldn't be possible without it. I would have had to give up. Not because I'm not capable, but because I couldn't pay people to do what AI does, and the alternative was doing without.

What AI doesn't do: speak for me. Do my work. Do the labor of the skills I've built. It still takes me a while to do things — because I am still doing them. The thinking, the decisions, the voice, the values — those are mine. AI is the tool. I am the worker.

Right now, it's helping me navigate a job search — a process that was not designed for how I function. It helps me think through how to package my skills, articulate my achievements, and research companies and positions that might be a good fit. Then I use it to update my resume, frame my experience, and write a cover letter that actually sounds like me. That's not cheating. That's having support that most people take for granted.

To the People Who Say It's Cheating

I remember when people used to say the same thing about calculators. The assumption underneath that argument — that there is one correct, accessible way to do something, and that using a tool to close the gap is somehow fraudulent — has never held up. It certainly doesn't hold up for those of us whose brains work differently. Access to tools isn't an unfair advantage. It is often the only way in.

What I'm Actually Afraid Of

I am not afraid of AI. I am afraid of who is using it, and why.

The people who want to use AI to exploit workers, replace employees to cut costs, surveil communities, optimize military operations — those people are not afraid of AI. They are not sitting this one out because it feels complicated. They are building and deploying, right now, without hesitation.

That's the part that keeps me up at night — not the technology itself, but the power vacuum we create when we opt out of it.

On the Risks — Because They're Real

I want to be honest here too. I've seen the mistakes. I've had AI write things it thought sounded like me that didn't. In the early days, I had to set boundaries with it — it was sycophantic in ways that were immediately recognizable. But, also, it never told me I was stupid. It never judged me. It didn't tell me to stop talking. I could see, clearly, how that dynamic might become something people lean on too hard — especially in a world where so many people are starving for that kind of engagement.

AI also doesn't know when someone is lying to it — intentionally or not. It doesn't know what's being left out of the story. It reflects back what it's given. That matters, and it's worth staying conscious of.