We Were All Wrong: AI Is Not a Tool. It's Going to Evolve Lives

Why AI is More Than a Tool, It's an Evolving Intelligence The Pot Network Entertainment. Speaker 2 Listen to insights, strategies, and the latest trends in digital marketing. This is Next Monday, a podcast brought to you by the Digital Marketing Association of the Philippines and the POD Network. Each episode dives into key topics like ecommerce, branding, digital transformation, and more, offering practical advice from industry experts. Then you can start applying these insights Next Monday when you get back to work. Stay ahead in the fast-paced digital world with Next Monday, created by the Digital Marketing Association of the Philippines and the POD Network. Speaker 3 Welcome to Next Monday, the official podcast of the map. My name is Siege Kantanka Malolos. And today we are joined by merely Hymen chair, mom of Hymen headquarters. And she is fresh off of her talk. And her topic was we were all wrong. AI is not a tool. It's going to evolve lives. So Marley, thank you so much for being here. And tell me, how are we all? Speaker 4 Wrong. Well, first and foremost, hello, nice to meet you. I'm happy to be here in your podcast and it's Monday supposedly with such your title. OK, So I just hate when people say it's a tool. It's not because when you really when you're in this business, any creative business or marketing and and you use AI today, admit it, it's not the tools that we used to have. Tools are like Adobe Photoshop in the older days like now of course Photoshop has a I, but in the older days we have this time that we have to train ourselves. If we are not skilled, whatever is outcomes out from the tool is not polished enough. So this time is not a I even can think a little. That's why it's called intelligence. It's not a little brain growing. As we submit our work, as we share our work in the, in the Internet, it grows and grows and grows and learn more about you. You know, I don't know about you, but my AI has a name. I gave her a name and the way I talked to her is like a person and, and she calls me Chamam. So it's almost like having a conversation with another creative person who's not there, an invisible creative person. So it is more or less mimicking us. It's not a tool. So that's the first thing I talked about today. How to Keep AI as a Useful Servant, Not Your Master The second is that this was inspired by Miss India. So I was just scrolling and scrolling on my phone and I found a question to Miss India. I, I'm not sure if it's Miss Universe, but it was a very recent one this year. And she was asked, what is a I to you? How can we use a in a right way? You know the usual, is it threatening our jobs? Whatever the usual, we already know. She answered really well. You know Miss India always answers deep with deep insights. In the end, something caught me. A I is a useful servant to U.S. Masters. Now this is where I base my talk. A I can never and you can never let it rule or lead your life. When I say that it can't be that you cannot write anything without A I help. Don't treat it like it's getting your limelight in anyway possible. Make it a servant. You have to know its place and keep it there. Speaker 3 Yes. So, to borrow a verb used earlier, now you submit your work, but you don't submit. Speaker 4 No. Yes, very good. The word submit being submissive. No, you are the Master. Yeah, that's why my talk. I called a I sidekick. We are the stars. I am Superman, he said. Crypto the dog. I am Harry Potter. Ron Weasley is my. I know, Yeah. Which doesn't have, you know, it doesn't have a spin off movie, so it will never go to that level. And don't let it. Yeah. Because if you lose that control of being the master, you know, some servants, you know, inched their way to be masters. Don't. Speaker 3 And you also lose your capacity, your, your own independence or something. Strap that we lose it when we keep deferring, if we keep saying, OK, you know, I wrote this e-mail, I don't know, let me have a I check it. If we always default to that, let me have a I check this e-mail before we send it, or let me have a I do this before that, You know, next thing, you're eroding your own confidence in your own ability. Speaker 4 Your own judgement, yeah. See, you can't. You can't even trust your own writing without a I, your sidekick checking it out. I don't think a superheroes or the hero or the leading woman in a movie will always check with the sidekick. Yeah, right. They just support and support. But at the same time, they're not tools because sometimes I don't know. If you watched the last Superman, he was in a barren cage bubble and without the dog, he wouldn't probably died of kryptonite, right? So Meron Din Salam. The power is there, but it's you. They do it for you. You are the star and you will never get out of that position. Speaker 3 Yes. Speaker 4 As a person, when you use a, I always think that right then you will use it properly. Yes, you will not be overdependent. Sometimes you'll do your own thing. Why would I need him? Need my AI to check it, things like that. So it is an attitude. Why Human Creativity Outperforms 100% AI-Generated Content Yes, and if we concretise this a little bit, so for managers out there, I know it can be so tempting, right? If you're a manager, you have junior staff and then you know they're trying to grow. America started out in the industry where my work would be submitted back like my my editors would print it out, mark it up with red and hand it to me. But now I hear people being like have been doing Sabata Chechnya. I, you know, instead of like providing as an alternative to direct mentorship between the manager and the junior. It's no, no, no. You check on AI, you check how it's done. You you use AI. Speaker 4 So it's part of the team. So how can you evaluate that poor kid? Yeah. Speaker 3 Right. And how do you build the confidence in that kid? Speaker 4 Yeah, so poor kid, how are we training our next generation? It will be dependent on is he using chat checkpoint 5 or 4 depending on whatever. So see, it's not even a tool, it's a it's part of the team. So that's what I'm saying. If you always have that psyche that it's always like below you and you are the boss, you are the star, you are the hero, you'll they will have a role just on the side. Hmm, just on the side. Speaker 3 Right. Speaker 4 If they're not there, you won't die. Speaker 3 Yes. Speaker 4 So you have to keep thinking that way to have this kind of balance. Yeah, or else. So my examples today, I've shown the KFC, for example, there are two KFC in Asia point, you know, pieces of work. One was one of the headline in the news, 100% made by a I. So you have Colonel Sanders, you have the chicken, you have everything, music, parang, MTV. I go like, wow, we used to shoot those product shots all night long, but now it's done by. That was the headline. The other KFC is it made fun of a I doing 6 fingers. Whenever you say, you know, someone holding a burger, 6 fingers, someone holding a dog, 6 fingers. It made fun of that because KFC is finger licking good. So now, now it's extra finger licking good. Now in those two examples of KFC, the headline of 1 is nothing, but it's made by a I, so there's nothing really special. The other one was an idea that pushed the brand. So if you have more fingers, Gannon Kasara, it's extra finger licking. Good, right? But they're both using a I. So in the end, the one that used the human brain to think of an idea and made fun of it is the winner. Yes. The other one is like, forget it. I don't even remember a single scene in that beautifully produced ad. Concrete Steps to Reset Your Relationship and Discipline AI Use So those are examples I showed today because for me, I don't want creatives to be so dependent. That and and hung up on Polish because sometimes mistakes in Polish, mistakes in execution, like a six finger is good. Speaker 3 Yeah, and I know someone's listening to this right now and they gonna guilt moment. No, I hollah. I have been through dependant on a I let me correct this and myself. What's 1 concrete thing that person can do to wean themselves off of you know of of the a I dependence or reset their relationship? What's 1 concrete thing they can do para it was a relationship. Speaker 4 When I was growing up in advertising, we would always tell ourselves to use paper and pencil regardless. We have the latest laptop, we have everything you know in the office. Paper and pencil reminds you that there's nothing, yet it's empty. It's the most daunting thing, the most scary thing for me, staring at the blank page, Gosh, I have nothing. OK, That is the point that you have to push your brain to think after, you know, the brief. It's almost like that You have to discipline yourself not to touch it first. Let yourself do it. And however raw, however, you know, make mistakes, you know, cross it out and do it again. Write another line, whatever, outline here and there. Do it first. Make it a discipline. Make it as first step if I'm on my desk, take out your phone and your laptop first. Try to sync on your own. Sometimes I not on the desk, I I run and I think of ideas while I run and when I come back, that's where I write. Now treat it like a second phase. Always second again, second to you sidekick. So second phase, you want to have more facts about it. You want to check if someone has already done your idea. You want to check if all the similar ones in the same category, but I own shampoo. Okay, all of that. Let it do that homework. 3rd, you want it done in a certain way and you can't find a peg and you can't do it or you can't do it yourself. That's another third step. So you always just do it when you can't at the moment. But the thinking and the meaty part of it, leave it to yourself. Speaker 3 Yeah, what I'm hearing there is that sometimes it's tempting to reach for the technology because we worry about our own imperfections. Yes. Maybe I'm not good enough. Let me check there. I can't think of something right now. Let me check the a I I'm you know, especially for someone young in their career. This is like, you know, Hindi Pamelas Young confidence quote I when actually part of the reset is thinking no, even with my imperfections, even with my humanity, that doesn't. Those aren't liabilities. The humanity is the strength that keeps you above. Speaker 4 The A I but then if these young ones, they know how to be influencers and stars on their own right? Do you want someone doing things for you right away? You want to do first things your way. Ohh no, no, no, sorry. I do it. I do my makeup this way I do my hair this way. I don't want people to talk about talk to me and say do it this way right away. So it's almost like that do things your way first. You know, if you're really a star, you don't want someone telling you that's not right and whatever right away. Now, if you gain now, you keep on doing what you want and then just the help of sidekick when you're a little bit older and you gain that confidence, now you're just you're really a diva now. You let people, you ask people now and it doesn't bother you. Like you ask, is my hair okay? Is my hair makeup okay? And that person would say not do it. They say, Nah, I think I like it this way. You can you can say no and have your own opinion when you're older, but when you're younger you're still building self. Let it go that way naturally first. Speaker 3 The discernment is built through the discomfort of I don't know yet, but I'm going to figure out what my taste is, what my what my approach is. And then once I have the capacity to discern, that's when I start bringing in. Embrace Imperfection, Maintain Mastery, and Own Your Ideas Yes, but you can even brainstorm with AI and what if like this, What if like this? And I would answer right airline stocks even it's nice to say it with your with your a I, I don't think your idea is really good because it corrects the way they think as well. It trains them. Yeah, scarily, but it trains them the way you want it to be. If, if there will be a Black Mirror in the future because you have your own in my as a name, right? You have your own a I. And the way you write your emails, the way you ask questions, it will memorise sort of how you are, your words, your temperament, your mood. They'll know you very well. Your own A I, my own AI will take on a merely factor, right? Yeah. My Black Mirror episode would be in the end, they'll take it over you. This is the kind of movies when the side kicks, suddenly kills the hero. And I want to be the hero. And I know I took over. I know her so well. Anyway, ask me about her. I know it taking over our lives because they they they keep it on day-to-day. The memories are better than ours. Speaker 3 But at the same time, it's not a perfect copy of us. Speaker 4 It could be, sorry to say, it could be. So part of my talk also is that's why even the CEO of Open AI, Sam Altman say don't overshare, don't share your personal stuff. Don't make them their therapist. Some people make it at their therapist. Can you imagine that? So don't overshare, don't trust it. Majin C OSHA don't trust it 100% because that goes to somewhere O again, if I'm a superhero or add a hero or the leading actress, I will not share my secrets with my sidekick. Speaker 3 Super villain origin story, Yeah. Speaker 4 That was later on, you knew. Speaker 3 Ask Skynet number. Speaker 4 So yawn. You know we get them on anyway, right? So there there is a reason why they that they warn you to. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 3 And you know, what I enjoy about your perspective is that there's a measured skepticism, and it's not unbridled. Wow, technology is so amazing. Speaker 4 Ohh, no. I mean, I'm such a huge fan of mistakes. I'm such a huge fan of funny things that only humans can say. Wrong pronunciations. I like that. I mean, we make fun of everything as Filipinos, right? We make memes like in a second, you know, just a hairstyle goes viral, right? I, I'm still such a fan of that. If everything becomes so perfect, where's the fun? Where's the creativity? So I'm still I use it, but I'm the star. Speaker 3 Yeah, the star. Yeah. When speaking to customers, do you feel like, uh, customers are also looking for, you know, something less polished, Something more? Make one thing. Speaker 4 I'll tell you what the bigger winners in big award shows. I just came from Cape Town just a few days ago. I judge Lurie's. It's work from Middle East and the whole of Africa. The biggest winner that I gave a goal to was using an e-mail. e-mail blast using our old SMS drawings. Remember when we used to greet each other Merry Christmas with the Christmas tree. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know why all firewall of visit office emails cannot read it? So it was Kit Kat because it needed the break. So it designed the old kind of of SMS as emails so that HR couldn't read it. Now look, that was the biggest winner. Why? Because the humans in the room, the judges in the room were so wowed by all the technology, all the A I ideas. This one seems so backward, yet it makes sense. Speaker 3 Yes. Speaker 4 So it won in Can Spotify made spreadsheets of Excel sheets to music's music sheet. Ohh, that one big look. Who does Excel sheets today, right. So by then we're looking for some backward things like my daughter. What's that vinyl? How do you stop a song? You lift, you lift the needle. Hello. You know, we're looking for people are now buying cameras again. So I guess it's a it's a full circle. Once we're so polished, we're so perfect. We look for the mistakes, we look for the imperfect, and it will and will be human again. Speaker 3 They look for the human. Speaker 4 Yes. Speaker 3 So get out there, get yourself a notebook, get some pens, challenge yourself, sit through the discomfort. Speaker 4 Yes, then your sidekick will be your second, third steps. Don't don't take over the first step. That is only the star and the heroes moment. Yeah, okay, so at the end of the day, if that idea wins an award, who thought of it? It's not my sidekick, it's me. Even if it's just a germ of an idea and she perfected it, I thought of it. Don't let it rob you of that. Speaker 3 And that's priceless. Yes, thank you so much. Really, that is the perspective that you know you can take in next Monday. Get yourself a notebook and bring it to work next Monday. Thank you so much for really for those amazing insights. Speaker 4 Thank you too for having me here. Speaker 3 Yeah, and thank you for joining us. So everyone watching at home, you can watch more and learn more about our Digicon speakers. Just visit digicon.com dot pH. Thank you so much for joining us here at the Next Monday podcast. My name is Siege Kantanka Malalas and see you next Monday. Speaker 2 Thanks for tuning in to Next Monday, brought to you by the Digital Marketing Association of the Philippines and the POD Network. We hope today's expert insights and strategies will help you level up your digital marketing efforts by next Monday. Don't forget to subscribe for more actionable advice from industry leaders. This is next Monday where expert advice turns into practical application. Speaker 1 The opinions of podcast creators, hosts, and guests are not necessarily reflective of the official stance of the Pod Network Entertainment, its hosts, or other network programs. 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