To AI or not to AI
You know the hype ‘If you’re not using AI you’ll be left behind’. Every time you read anything about creating online, that’s what is pushed.
I mostly avoid AI, and the talk around it, because I enjoy doing what I do. I love creating images, writing, learning code, and working out how to fix small issues myself. I don’t want to have a machine do it for me.
But I got thinking about it again earlier this week when I read Justin Welsh’s newsletter AI is coming for us (here’s my plan).
https://www.justinwelsh.me/newsletter/ai-is-coming
He looks at how various industries are having AI take over jobs that can be automated (which when you think about it is a lot), and most businesses look at profit. If AI can do it fairly accurately, quicker, and cheaper, then that’s the road they’ll take.
The ones who will have the best chance to survive are the ones who are human, who develop relationships, and create space for connection.
Local newsletters are in a special place where they don’t have to use AI, and I recommend against it, because they’re connecting people with others directly around them.
If you’re using photos of local locations and events, you won’t get anything better than a photo taken at that location or event.
You, and the community groups you’re publishing information for, are the ones who know exactly what needs to be said in the articles you publish. Nothing can be better than your, and their, own words.
I would even go as far as to say that AI doesn’t make the job of producing your newsletter any quicker. Once you’ve got a few systems in place, a local newsletter is easy to produce each week.
(An interesting case study from the last week where Chicago Sun-Times published a reading list of books that don’t exist. The article itself was via a freelancer through an agency, who said it was written by AI and he normally checks it, but didn’t this time.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/press-room/2025/05/20/chicago-sun-times-response-to-may-18-special-section
However some people have reported that there have been other less obvious inaccuracies scattered through Chicago Sun-Times which point to previous AI use as well.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/20/chicago-sun-times-ai-summer-reading-list)Having AI take a role in your process means you need to oversee it as well.
Connection is key
And what I’ve been alluding to this entire time - connecting with other people. Something you will always be able to do with greater benefits than AI.
Recently I went and took photos at a wreath-laying ceremony for an article I was running. None of it could be done by AI.
AI couldn’t be there to take the photos, or even replicate them based on previous photos I’d taken at these type of ceremonies, because it didn’t know who was participating in the ceremony or in the audience. It would have been obviously fake.
I didn’t need AI to write the information as I used the speech spoken at the event.
And most importantly, AI can’t connect with people in place of me.
After the ceremony, we were invited to a café for drinks. Just sitting and connecting with other people in the community, talking about life and upcoming events we all needed to get things ready for, really helps get rid of feelings of isolation, loneliness, and helps build a strong community.
If I had been able to create my article accurately with AI and done so, I personally would have been worse off for it.