Newsletter 5 / Intention is your human superpower to compete with AI

Years ago, I went hiking and snapped photos every few steps. By the end, I had hundreds of photos. I didn't review them all, just saved them. Later, I told a photographer friend about this, proudly saying I was bound to get a few good shots from so many. He paused and said, "No, I don't think so, friend. If you didn't have any intention when taking those photos, they're not good. You can't just select a great photo by chance."

That stuck with me because it’s so relevant to our current experience with AI. We often use AI as a fancy toy to generate compositions from existing patterns. But without intention, we don’t create original, powerful outcomes.

Take, for example, the recent news of the assassination attempt on ex-president Donald Trump. You might have seen the great photo taken by Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Evan Vucci. Some might say it was luck, being in the right place at the right time. But I disagree. The photo was definitely intended. The composition, the flag in the background, the bodyguards around Trump, and his raised fist—it all shows intention. Evan knew what was important to capture.

Another example is a photo taken by Evan a few years ago during Trump’s election campaign. It shows Trump with a big "EXIT" sign behind him. This sign is usually high up, meaning the photographer had to raise his camera intentionally to capture both Trump and the sign. This wasn’t accidental; it was deliberate and thoughtful.

So why am I discussing this in an AI newsletter? Because AI's fancy features let us generate content with minimal effort, much like my hiking photos. But you can’t create great content without intention. This is the key difference between human effort and AI effort. When using AI, we should practice intention first, then use AI as a tool—not the other way around.

几年前，我去远足，每走几步就拍照。结果，我拍了数百张照片。这些照片我没仔细看过，只是都保存了下来。后来，我把这件事告诉了一个摄影师朋友，得意地说，从这么多照片里肯定能拍出几张好看的。他停顿了一下，说：“不，你错了。如果你拍这些照片时没有任何意图，它们就不会好。你不能靠运气选出一张好照片。”

这番话让我记忆犹新，因为它与我们现在使用AI的体验很相似。我们经常把AI当作一个花哨的工具，用来从现有的模式中生成作品。但是，如果没有意图，我们无法创造出原创而有力的作品。

以最近刺杀前总统唐纳德·特朗普的新闻为例。你肯定看过普利策奖获奖摄影师Evan Vucci拍的那张精彩照片。有些人可能会说这是运气，正好在对的时间出现在对的地点。但我不这么认为。这张照片绝对是有意拍摄的。照片中的构图、背景的旗帜、环绕特朗普的保镖以及他高举的拳头——这一切都显示了摄影师的意图。Evan知道什么是重要的。

另一个例子是Evan几年前在特朗普竞选期间拍的一张照片。照片中，特朗普背后有一个大大的“EXIT”标志。这个标志通常在高处，这意味着摄影师必须特意把相机举高，以捕捉到特朗普和标志。这不是偶然的，而是有意为之，经过深思熟虑的结果。

那么，为什么我要讨论这个？因为AI的强大功能让我们可以轻松生成内容，就像我远足时随手拍的照片一样。但是，没有意图，你不能创造出优秀的内容，这是人类创作与AI创作之间的关键区别。使用AI时，我们应该先明确意图，然后将AI作为工具——而不是反过来。

Here’re five cool things I’d like to share with you today 🙂