Derek Sivers

AI usage

As of today, , here is how I’ve used generative AI/LLM tools.


I use OpenAI mostly for research, the way I used to use a search engine before it returned mostly spam.

I have never ever used AI to generate text in place of my “voice”. No emails. No sentences in my articles or books or even comments. Nothing pretending to be me.

I enjoy the challenge of writing myself. It’s organized thinking. It’s the doing I’m after, not having it done. See my article “It’s about being, not having” for more thoughts on this.

I have used AI to generate programming functions for me, in SQL, Python, Go, or JavaScript, for educational purposes, which I’ve then adapted to include in my own code.

While I’m writing, I often ask GPT-4 the kinds of things I would ask a friend sitting next to me. Like, “What are examples of different ways of seeing life that are impossible to prove or disprove?” Or, “What professions most use a physical toolbox?”

But again, the real point of this page is to let you know that nothing claiming to be written by me is written by an AI.

If this changes in the future, I’ll update this page at this permanent URL: sive.rs/ai


This page is suggested by Damola, here. (Check out his blog. He’s great.)