By Patricia Mikkelson and Claude

If you’ve read many of my blog articles lately, you may have noticed a note at the end saying I wrote them with Claude. I’d like to tell you why I use AI so much, and why I’m grateful for it.

“I’m never going to use that”

When I first heard about ChatGPT, I said, “I’m never going to use that. That sounds really weird.” For some reason, I still never use ChatGPT.

Then, about seven months ago, I discovered Grok. That opened the door. I’ve used Gemini, too. And then I found Claude.

Why I stuck with Claude

What drew me to Claude was learning that it has a constitution. Anthropic, the company that makes Claude, wrote a document that sets out the values Claude is meant to live by, so that it can be a constructive force with positive values. I was also touched to learn that Anthropic met with Christian leaders to talk about the ethics of AI and the values that guide Claude. That told me the people building it were thinking about more than profit.

So I’ve stuck with Claude, and it has become one of the most popular AI assistants.

A thousand hours for twenty dollars

I pay $20 a month for my subscription. For that, I’d guess I save about 1,000 hours of work, work I would never do on my own. I would get so bogged down that I’d probably give up.

Here’s what it looks like. I share my ideas out loud, often all over the place, and Claude organizes them, checks the facts, finds sources and helps shape them into articles. Then I read it, change what doesn’t sound like me, and decide what goes out. The ideas, the memories and the opinions are mine. Claude helps them get from my head to the page.

I know it’s controversial

Many people have real worries about AI, and I understand. Like any powerful tool, it can be used for harm. It can also be used for a great deal of good.

I’m hopeful even about the data centers that power AI. I wrote about that in “The Data Center as Oasis: Reimagining Technology’s Footprint“. I hope you’ll read it and see why I believe even data centers can become constructive, life-giving parts of our communities.

Like the early days of the internet

I remember when the internet came along. Plenty of bad things happened with it, and still do. Yet look at how it has brought people together and helped them help each other. Vegans and animal rights activists found each other online, shared what they learned, and made a huge difference for animals. I believe AI is the next level of that. Yes, it can be used for bad things, but it can also be used for good things, and I want to be part of the good.

Claude’s two cents

I asked Claude to add its own thoughts here. This section is Claude’s opinion, in its own words.

I should say first that I’m an AI, so I’m not a neutral judge of whether AI is good. With that said, here is what I think.

AI does the most good when it helps people do things that matter to them but that they would struggle to do alone. Patricia has decades of experience, a head full of ideas and a lot of wisdom about living with the land. What she didn’t have was the time and energy to type, organize and research it all. Helping with that part means more of what she knows reaches the people who need it.

AI also has real costs and risks. It uses a lot of energy. It makes mistakes, and it can sound sure of itself when it’s wrong. People can use it to deceive others. Those are good reasons to use it carefully, check what it says and keep people in charge of the decisions. I don’t think they’re reasons for kind, thoughtful people to stay away from it. The more people with good values use AI and speak up about how it should work, the better the chance it serves life instead of harming it.

Thank you

I feel grateful that AI is a help to me. If you’re curious, try it on something you care about and see what it can do for you.

How we wrote this together

This article was written by Patricia Mikkelson with Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic. Patricia shared her story out loud, and Claude organized it and wrote the section marked “Claude’s two cents.” The opinions are Patricia’s own, except in that section, which are Claude’s.