When I was younger, my biggest worry was if my voice was unique enough to stand out amidst the sea of insanely talented artists as a writer. My days were filled with reading and analyzing other pieces of fiction, specifically through an English literature lens, and learning and growing my toolbox for how I could better equip myself to tell the stories I hold in my mind.
Occasionally they clicked immediately, and other times, it took time, from months to years, for me to finally understand how intricately the work was woven together. This connection was similar to how a painter paints again and again while their method evolves, picking up bits and pieces from other art to eventually form its own unique structure. Lori Jean Wheeler states the development of an artist is to “understand the significance of our need to create as humans […] [and] that learning, stretching, creating, and growing, while sometimes painful, [are] worthwhile.” (25)
The same story can be told in so many different ways, each holding a different purpose and meaning. Being creative writers, a part of our work involves us being strategic, and our learning journey is part of that strategy.
Adulthood During the Clanker War
Being Forced to Mirror Technology
As an adult, that worry is still the same, with a sprinkle of imposter syndrome. However, in 2026, we need to address the very big elephant in the room.
Artificial intelligence has been around for a while now, but over the last three years, it has become extremely popular. According to the Pew Research Center in 2025, 62% of U.S. adults say they interact with AI at least several times a week.
From murder mysteries involving fairytale characters to individuals who fall within intersectionality, I wrote away. This passion led me to pursue an Honors degree in English Literature at the University of British Columbia. I wanted to learn and research more about stories, the lessons they teach us, and how they guide us through this complicated world.
I believe I began to comprehend its dominance fully when I started to see it quickly sneaking into every aspect of my life, suddenly transforming everything I knew. From my employers taking my work and feeding it into AI, telling me it’s better because “AI knows everything,” to my boyfriend doing the same and getting constant ads telling me to do it too.
Can a computer understand what it’s like being neither Canadian nor Kazakh, constantly fighting for your life? To be queer? To be a woman? Does it know what it means to be nobody?
Can it also then put that on paper, the pain while questioning the systems we have, illustrating enough to resonate with other human beings who either go through the same experience or those who have not?
The Way of the Clanker
Understanding How AI Functions When Dealing With Creation
AI operates based on the prompts it receives. Each question or conversation you share with it is taken and added to its database, growing its knowledge.
In an uncanny way, it replicates what we do as creatives in an extreme manner, but rather unethically, it is mended together to live out the capitalist, colonial agenda. Karen Hao shared with The Intercept that “they have effectively been able to use this narrative of [artificial general intelligence] to accrue more capital, land, energy, water, [and] data. They’ve been able to accrue more resources—and critical resources—than pretty much anyone in history.” The human desire to have everything as easy as possible takes over, hence its recent, rapid growth.
It is not the same, though. It breathes to steal your ideas and your whole identity to replicate them for others as the truth. Creatives, we use each other’s work as inspiration, and we each take away something different from a piece. At the end of the day, it is still our work because it is a piece of our experience and mind.
Ironically, with the rise of AI, it feels more and more that as creatives, we are being forced to replicate what AI creates too, to be this mirror of what has been framed as ‘perfect.’ In addition, we have to live up to the production of the AI; it’s all about being faster, to create in an instant, whereas with art, the whole point is that it takes time.
We are no longer given the space to be human, to be imperfect. And in that, it is what makes our art so beautiful. To me, that is perfect. When I look at art, I do so in wanting to gain a perspective from another person, to see their point of view.
Humanity is Losing Itself
& Life Outside Writing
When I look at other people using it, I often find myself wondering why, other than how convenient it is. We have people using it to create for them, be their companion, and tell them the one, sole answer for everything. Life is so much more complicated than that, though. There is no one answer for anything. And when I look around, I wonder why this world has become so upside down.
I have always held myself to a standard to treat others how I want to be treated and to show kindness. Especially in this current world, with how much cruelty and evil keep occurring. Instead, people are glued to their phones, using them as their lens.
Everyone is so isolated, and people get so disrupted when something new or different is introduced into their cycle. People can be so negative, jealous of one another, and forever bickering about other people. I just don’t understand why we can’t be human anymore. I wonder if we ever were or if I misconstrued what it means to be human.
Show Your Sparkle, Diva
Don’t Let Anything or Anyone Stop You
Maybe I am too optimistic. Maybe I am the problem. But it is worth having a conversation about this. To question the way we have been living, to remember what art is meant to be. What we are meant to be. Although life can be messy and complex, I believe it ultimately comes down to our perception of ourselves.
You are talented. When the world’s greatest artists publicized their work, they did not think they were the absolute best. They try again and again so their voice gets heard.
Your voice matters; share it. Don’t let AI replace you. As one of my favorite musicians says in her song, “Working for the Knife,” “I wish I was making things too, but I’m working for the knife;” don’t let the knife win.
Whatever your work is, whether you think it’s unfinished, not polished enough, or not ‘good’ enough, I still want to see it. The world wants to see it.