Unblock [Unlock] Your Mind With "Genitive-AI"

Any creative process or situation, and we are stuck!

• Resurface that hidden concept: You have absorbed content for days. Blogs, videos, tweets, webinars. That idea is sitting there. Find it!
• Tame your overwhelmed mind: You have a gazillion thoughts, all knotted. Tame your overwhelm!
• Perfectionist's Paralysis: Your idea is not released, because it is not perfect. Get it out there!
• Emotional Quagmire: The idea is there, clouded by emotional weather. Clear the weather!
• Drowning in the Data Lake: Bits of data, all swimming around. There is a big fish, find it!

Sitting at my desk. Stuck. Staring at my laptop screen, frustration welling up inside. I know I have something to say. Just, I do not know what it is!! It’s sitting on the tip of my tongue, teasing the back of my eyelids, stirring in my gut.

Sound familiar? How often do you find yourself in this situation? When you KNOW you have something to say, but you're just not sure what it is. When you're aware that you understand something important at that moment, yet you can't pinpoint what exactly it is you know.

This predicament led me to explore Generative AI as a creative ally. For the past few months, I've been delving into using AI to assist in generating content. The journey hasn't been about replacing my creative process but enhancing it. I've found strategies to guide the AI, ensuring that the output reflects my voice and essence, without letting technology dilute my personal touch.

Have you considered how AI might serve as a tool in your creative arsenal? Imagine harnessing its power to break through blocks and amplify your unique expression. Perhaps you would like to join me on this journey? Discovering how we can use AI to our advantage, without losing the heart of our message.

I find this process incredibly empowering.

It seems this has a name – ‘Genitive-AI’.

I have the privilege of being part of the MECLABS AI Guild. In the week up to a recent live class (18/10/23) I started verbalizing this use of AI. In this live class, Flint McGlaughlin put a name to the process I was discovering. This is what he said:

“I like to think of AI as having a set of capabilities that can help me. And we often miss one of the most important ones. And that is, if I provide it with the right information, it can start to have a conversation that sparks genitive AI. No, genitive Flint McGhlaughlin, genitive [name redacted].”

Not being familiar with the word ‘genitive’, I ran this paragraph through ChatGPT, asking what the possible meaning and context was. To answer in plain English.

Initially, GPT took the word genitive to mean generative.

The term “genitive” in the context provided is likely a typographical or semantic error. It's possible that the intended term was “generative,” which in the context of AI refers to systems capable of generating new data, insights, or conversations based on provided input.

I did not agree with this response. Looking up the meaning of the word:

“(in some languages) in the special form of a noun, a pronoun, or an adjective that is used to show possession or close connection between two things” Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries

“In the grammar of some languages, the genitive, or the genitive case, is a noun case which is used mainly to show possession. In English grammar, a noun or name with 's added to it, for example 'dog's' or 'Anne's', is sometimes called the genitive form.” Collins Dictionary

So my lay interpretation of McGlaughlin’s paragraph is:

If [I] give AI the right information, [I] could engage in a conversation with AI, and AI would 'speak' as if it were [me]. The AI output would be such as to 'belong to' [me], in that it would resonate or map to the non-AI [me].

This is a clumsy explanation. I asked GPT if it agreed with my interpretation. In addition, to give me a more eloquent output of what I was trying to say. This is what came back:

“Yes, your interpretation does make sense given the context and the meaning of “genitive.” You're suggesting that the AI, when supplied with the right information, would generate responses that so closely align with [YOUR] manner of speaking or thinking that they could be considered to “belong to” [you]."

The term “genitive” usually refers to ownership or association in a linguistic context. Applying this concept to AI, the term could metaphorically suggest that the AI's responses would be so uniquely aligned with [your] persona that they would seem to “belong to” you. In other words, the AI would produce outputs that resonate or map closely to [your] own ways of communicating or thinking, as if the AI's words were your own.

I know I discovered a core theme for me to explore, apply and unpack.

In many ways, this is an example of what is alluded to in this article. I knew I had discovered (knew) something. I did not know what it was. Engaging with AI revealed what it was I knew.

AI generated version of this article

I am exploring and fine-tuning the capacity of Generative AI to facilitate learning. As a sub-set of this, the capacity to generate content.

To that end, I generated an AI version of this article.

In comparing this article to the AI generated, I make the following comments:

1. ChatGPT did a much better job than I did.

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This article was written with the help of the following exceptional resources.