Use AI as Your Assistant, Not Your Replacement

Is AI replacing creativity or enhancing it? In this thought-provoking episode, Dylan reveals how top creators use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity without sacrificing their unique voice or authentic perspective.

You'll discover:

• Why blindly following AI suggestions could be diluting your content's uniqueness
• The critical difference between AI's goal and your goal as a creator
• A practical framework for using AI as a creative assistant rather than a replacement
• How to build a proper feedback loop with AI that strengthens your voice
• Common AI usage mistakes that could be killing your content's effectiveness

Whether you're experiencing AI tool fatigue or just starting to explore these powerful assistants, this episode provides a balanced approach to integrating artificial intelligence into your creative process. Learn how to make AI amplify your voice, not drown it out.

Perfect for content creators who want to work smarter without losing the human touch that makes their work special.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
AI artificial intelligence is everywhere.
It could absolutely replaceyour creativity if you let it,
but I think that is absolutely adisservice.
Ai can help you move faster,think clearer and create more,
but the trick is you have to useit right, and in this episode
I'm going to break down how I'musing tools like ChatGPT, cloud

(00:22):
Replexity and some othercreative assistants Not as
full-on creative replacements,but assistants and how you can
too.
So by now we're all familiarwith AI tools like ChatGPT.
There's also a little bit oflike tool fatigue, I think,
going around where you knowevery app seems to be
integrating AI and it's kind ofoverwhelming Not only how to use

(00:46):
these tools, but subscriptionfatigue, like you've got to
subscribe to all these differentthings and do they really help
you or are they just trying totake your money?
And I think a lot of creatorsjust kind of fall back on over
relying on these tools becausethey get comfortable with it and
they lose some authenticity.
And I dislike that because Ithink what is going to make

(01:07):
creators stand out in the futureis not copying and pasting
everything.
It's going to have a reallyunique angle and if you use AI
the wrong way, it's going todilute your unique angle.
Ai should make your voicelouder, not drown it out.
So let me go over, at a highlevel, some of the AI tools I'm
using.
It's going to sound like a lotand I'm not making any
recommendations here.
I just want to give you anoverview of what's out there if

(01:31):
you're not already familiar withit.
So we have ChatGPT Everyone'sfamiliar with that.
That's your reliable all rounderfor creative writing, ideation
planning.
Some people use it as atherapist.
People get creative with it.
Then there's Claude, which issomewhat more of a writing tool,
very similar to ChatGPT but hassomewhat more of a writing tool
, very similar to ChachiBT buthas somewhat more of a
thoughtful tone.

(01:51):
A lot of people like to use itfor long form writing has more
human-like responses.
Then there's Perplexity, whichis fantastic for research and
citations.
It's replaced Googling things.
For me, you can change themodel within Perplexity.
So, say, I search for something, I can use Perplexity's AI
model, or I could useChachabiti's, or I could use

(02:14):
DeepSeek's.
It's really handy, I love it.
And then there's Google Gemini,which, funny enough, like I
don't think the strongest of anyof these tools.
One thing, though, that'sgotten really better, especially
in like the last week is itsability to edit photos.
For example, I went on Fiverrand I was trying to have someone
edit one of my Apple Memojisit's kind of like an emoji of

(02:36):
yourself that you make and Ipaid a couple people to edit the
LA Dodgers logo on my Memojihat and nobody could get it.
I was just like wasting money.
But this new latest GoogleGemini update first try in 10
seconds added the LA Daughterslogo to my Apple Memoji.
I'm not a fan of Google Geminifor like research and things

(02:57):
like that, but when it comes toimage generation or image
editing, it's been pretty cool.
Then there's Grok, which is fromXAI and it's kind of like a
mixture of ChachiBT ClaudePerplexity.
It does some image generationtoo, but I've been using Grok
more so for social listeningbecause it has access to X.

(03:17):
So if I want kind of to get thepulse on how people are
thinking about something, I'llhop on Grok and ask you know,
what are X users saying aboutblank, and it can get real-time
data by looking out on X and seewhat people are saying,
synthesizing that and giving itback to me.
So there's five tools rightthere, left unchecked.
You could just like use justone of these tools to outsource

(03:39):
all of your creativity and justinput it information and do what
it tells you.
But there's a huge problem withthat because when you write a
prompt or if you're, you know,inputting things to the chatbot,
it has a specific goal thatmight differ from your specific
goal, meaning like, say, forexample, I wanted it to write a

(04:01):
podcast episode for this podcast.
The goal of the chatbot,regardless of which one I'm
giving here, is going to be toplease me.
It's going to want to give mean episode that I am happy with,
not what you're happy with, notthat it will serve you best,
which is my goal, is to make anepisode that serves you best,

(04:21):
and that's a subtle but very,very important difference to
highlight.
The goal of the AI chatbot isto please me, not my audience,
and it will lie to me, saying,yes, I think this is perfect for
what your audience would like.
And if I don't use my humanjudgment or even know what to
judge and be like you know whatthis isn't right, then I start

(04:42):
to lose that touch between meand what I'm doing.
I basically become a slave tothe AI.
Now, that's not to say itdoesn't come up with fantastic
ideas because you think aboutlike a writing room, for example
, right, or like a really goodtv show like Severance.
If you've been watching that,having just finished season two,
I can't help but just thinklike what the writing rooms

(05:02):
looked like like.
How did they come up with allthese unique storylines and
things?
And, as creators, we're oftenby ourselves during the writing
process, so it's nice to havesomething to bounce ideas off of
.
But just like as if you were ina writing room, if you just
went with like the first ideathat popped up, you're probably
not going to have the best ideas, because some ideas need to be

(05:23):
challenged and not every ideaneeds to be executed on.
So the same thing comes to whenyou're working with AI is to not
believe the first thing it saysback, to push back, and what
you'll find if you haven'talready is that sometimes, when
you push back, the AI chatbotwill go actually you're right
and it will start to become moreclear, because we think we're
being clear sometimes in askingfor what we want, but we're

(05:46):
really not.
We're leaving out key details,we're letting the AI fill in
gaps that we probably shouldn'tbe and again, next thing you
know, your unique angle isvanished from the piece that
you're working on and you wonder, hmm, why is this not working
out for me?
So here's a few ways I've beenusing AI as my creative
assistant that I'd like to sharewith you.
So I use AI when coming up witha prompt, just like how I

(06:09):
shared a second ago that oftenwe're not that great at asking
for what we want.
You can be aware that you'renot that great at asking for
what you want and still not bethat great at asking for what
you want.
Just because you know you'reaware of the problem doesn't
mean that you fix the problem.
And so, for me, the same thinglike I think I'm explaining what
I want pretty well until Iactually workshop what I want.

(06:32):
To put it simply, before I evenget to like the writing part, I
work on the prompting part.
I'm using AI to like brainstormangles, different titles,
different ideas, and I'mstarting to shape what it is
that I want, because I found,through the process of shaping
what it is that I want, Istarted to get clear of what it
is that I'm creating, who it'sfor, and that helps shape the

(06:55):
draft in the next part.
So what this looks like inaction is like asking AI to help
me refine or clean up a promptthat I'm going to ask in the
next phase when it comes tostructuring things maybe an
outline or questions I should beaddressing or what order I
should place things in and I'mnot looking for AI to get it
perfect right off the bat.
So what I'll do is like a braindump and then I'll say, clean

(07:17):
this up and turn it into aprompt that I can ask ChatGPT
and then it will clean it up andI'll notice sometimes like it
gets it wrong.
I'm like that's not what Iwanted, or I'll delete this, or
oh, you know what.
I forgot to include this, butwhat it gives me is better than
what I had.
It's my assistant.
It didn't replace my thinking.
I didn't just ask it one lineand it gave me back a whole
bunch of things.
I want to give it as muchinformation as I can so that it

(07:41):
can be equipped to clean up asmuch as I can.
I can delete some things, maybeadd some things.
So I'll take that prompt, putit into a new chat and then ask
more about what I want.
Right, and give it the contextof what it is that I'm creating.
After that, what most people dois just copy it and then
publish it.
But that's a mistake.
You have to think about thecontext.
It doesn't matter if it's atext message, an email, a video

(08:04):
script, a title for a podcastepisode.
Whatever it is.
You are the owner of that, notthe AI.
The AI does not care whathappens next After it completes
its job.
All it's trying to do again ismake you happy.
But your job, as the owner ofthe outcome of whatever it is
that you're creating, is thatit's captured by your audience,
that it's understood by youraudience.

(08:25):
And you can't get lazy here.
You can't just be like well, Idon't know if I trust what.
I think.
I trust more the AI.
If you get in that headspace,you're going to flatten your
voice, you're going to lose outon what you could be gaining
through all this work you'redoing, of whatever it is that
you're creating, and a simpleroutine to get into is, instead
of just copying and pastingwhatever it gives you is to

(08:48):
rewrite it, whether you knowjust typing it out in like a
notes or whatever it is to letwhat it gives you and what you
put out there filtered throughyou reading it and like typing
it and it's a little bit extrawork, yeah, but oftentimes when
you're writing you're like Iwould never say it like that,
and those are the little piecesthat add up to be big pieces
later on.
And what happens is you startto build a feedback loop of you

(09:11):
critiquing the AI output.
Then you iterate on it and itbecomes a co-creation process
versus a I use whatever it givesme process, and not only will
your content have more of yourvoice and be more unique and
resonate with more people,you'll have a deeper
understanding of what you likeand what you dislike.
You'll effectively become abetter content manager and

(09:33):
curator and know in the future,like how you do things without
being so reliant on AI that youfeel incapable of even producing
anything without it.
Some closing thoughts.
I think these tools areabsolutely amazing when used
correctly, but I just am seeingevery week people use them wrong
or over relying on them andit's missing their voice, and

(09:54):
it's from well-intentionedpeople that have a lack of trust
in what they're saying.
It's avoidable.
But at the same time, I do havesome empathy, because these
tools are brand new.
We did not grow up with thesethings.
Nobody has, like, taken thetime to be like hey, here's how
you use these groundbreaking,technologically advanced tools
that can empower you.
I'm curious what you think too.

(10:15):
As always, feel free to hop inthe creator club and share your
experiences, your tricks, yourtips that you've found working
with these AI tools.
I'll catch you in the next one.
If you're getting value from theshow, if something you've heard
here has helped you moveforward as a creator, I'd love
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(10:36):
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(10:59):
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.
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Thanks again for joining metoday.
Until next time, keep creating.