Does Insight Need You To Be First?

We're worried AI can't generate original insight, but is that the point?

Right now, we, and yes, I mean me too, are worrying that the content generated or led by the LLMs is not original, it cannot provide “insight”.

It is, after all, a synthesis of what’s gone before, shaped into whatever we prompted.

It is not creative. It isn’t going to bring anything genuinely new to the conversation, and if you lean on it too heavily, you will, let’s be honest about what we are all really scared of, end up looking like a bit of a cock.

But is the uniqueness of the insight what we should be worried about?

Have I ever typed anything into this thing and thought I need to share this as NOBODY ELSE knows?

Of course not.

I am typing this because I think the thing I’ve thought about and learned, with a bit of my spin on it, might be interesting or even mildly amusing to you.

“Insight” doesn’t have to be unique to the world; it just needs to be new or interesting to your audience.

You are a conduit to bringing this to your people, as they trust you, and you can express the insight in a way that is made relevant to them.

Of course, I type shit into here that has someone’s eye roll, and yes, I look like a cock as I reveal I was today years old when I learned x… y.. or z… in fact, a whole lexicon of letters of shit I should know better.

But…

One caveat to passing off LLM insight as your own.

The issue isn’t really whether an AI helped create the idea. The issue is whether you actually understand it well enough to own it.

If I write about something and offer it as insight, I need to know what I said and why, for that moment when someone asks me about it.

I constantly tell the story of reading something seemingly by a CMO I respected until the moment that, when I asked him about it, he had no clue, it was ghostwritten, and from that day, I have never agreed to be ghostwritten for, despite in various roles having the resources and wonderful writers that would have done a splendid job of it.

Similarly, I just got a seemingly authentic email from someone in my network who commented on the latest episode of my podcast. I was confused as the feedback didn’t connect with a recent podcast or guest, so I asked, and the reply said “AI something something” and… ahhh… there we go.

We should be leaning on these tools, but FFS, know what they’re saying on your behalf.

While the insight doesn’t have to be original, you should know what it is.