In his brief personal reflection, Joel R. Dennstedt explains that he chooses not to participate full-throatedly in the ongoing “great AI debate,” particularly around AI’s role in creativity and what it means for humanity’s future. He begins by noting how his writer-friend asked for his thoughts on AI and creativity after reviewing his latest “Robot” series book—and while honoured, Dennstedt realised that his response would differ from the polarized positions dominating public discussion.
Dennstedt states that while he uses only minimal AI tools (for example, Grammarly to correct punctuation and grammar), he does not rely on AI to write his novels. His books explore human-machine interaction in a classic science-fiction vein, rather than presenting prophetic visions of an AI-dominated future. He reflects on how rapidly advancing technology might render current human understanding obsolete, and muses that the “dinosaur” (himself) gazing forward at the alien future is, in fact, somewhat appropriate for his literary themes.
At a deeper level, Dennstedt critiques how much of the public AI discourse is overly simplified, polarized into “friend of AI” versus “foe of AI.” He argues that meaningful conversation about AI must go beyond these binaries and engage with how society, technology and our paradigms are evolving much faster than our frameworks of judgement and control. He implies that much of the debate is “superfluous,” given that the world is moving into realms that our current models of thought were not built to understand—and therefore, participating in the debate may feel futile or misdirected.
