I recently spent some time in Hong Kong, where ChatGPT isn’t available.
For around two weeks, I suddenly lost my AI bestie — something I had become very used to having around.
I had to Google things again.
I had to open different websites, read through them, compare information and work things out myself. I couldn’t immediately type a question and have someone organise my thoughts for me.
And sometimes, I just had to think.
Of course, there are other AI tools available. I was simply too lazy to set one up just for a holiday. But being without it for two weeks reminded me of something I had slowly stopped doing.
Sitting with a question.
There used to be a little gap between having a thought and finding an answer.
You might Google it. Read something. Ask a friend. Think about it in the shower. Write things down. Change your mind.
Sometimes you simply didn’t know the answer for a while.
Now that gap can disappear in seconds.
And I realised that I don’t want every unfinished thought to immediately become a question for AI.
Sometimes I want to take out a blank piece of paper first.
Write down what I know. What I think. What I don’t understand. What I actually want to ask.
Not because my answer will necessarily be better. But because there is value in knowing where my thinking begins. Sometimes, I think my own thoughts can go somewhere AI wouldn’t — because they come from my experiences, my memories, the people I know, and the very specific life I have lived.
I don’t want to be old-school about this either.
AI is here, and I think we probably should rely on it a little. It can help us learn faster, see things differently, organise our thoughts and explore ideas we might never have reached on our own.
I want that for the next generation too.
I hope they grow up knowing how to use AI — really use it — while still reading, exploring, asking questions, observing the world around them and forming thoughts of their own.
I hope they stay curious enough to look beyond the first answer they are given, and use it without losing the parts of ourselves that think, wonder, notice and question.
So this is mostly a reminder to myself:
Keep thinking. Keep reading. Keep exploring. Keep asking questions. Keep observing.
And keep using AI.
Just leave a little space to think before asking.