Lately I’ve been thinking and discussing with other songwriters and composers a lot about AI and the implications for musicians and creative people. There's certainly a lot of chatter about what AI can do, but not so much about what it might undo, how it might already be "un-teaching" us in profound ways.

When I started learning guitar, figuring out how to play a new chord was a challenge. It took time. My fingers had to stretch and fumble their way into place. But that effort wasn’t wasted — it was a lesson first, and then a marvelous discovery when I began to understand what I could do with that chord in relation to the other chords I was learning. So it was a physical challenge first, and then through frustration and repetition, it literally became an important part of what I do, who I was, and thankfully, who still I am.

I used to be great with directions, had an innate sense of where things were and could follow my nose and find my way. Now usually – and often against my own instincts – I follow Google Maps on my phone. It just seems easier and takes away any uncertainty. But I sense it’s costing me something, and that is my own ability to figure out where I'm going. I am weakening a part of myself, and eventually may loose it altogether.

I’m not anti-AI. I think these tools can be incredible. But I also think there’s something irreplaceable about challenging ourselves. About following our own instincts and working through something that's hard. About wrestling with our own limitations, making mistakes and then the sense of growth and satisfaction when we find our way, whether it's creatively, or to a friend's house in a part of town we have never been in before.

If we outsource all of that — all the reaching and stretching, fumbling and learning – are the machines our tools, or is it the other way round? Whose creative life is it if each of us is not finding our own way, but the destination is being handed to us on a silicon platter?

I'll leave it there and would love to hear your thoughts.