I use ChatGPT

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I’ve decided to stop being coy about it.

I use ChatGPT.

Not occasionally. Not experimentally.  

Regularly — as part of my working process.

And the more I use it, the clearer I am about what it is and what it isn’t.

It’s not doing the work for me.

It’s not making the art.  

It’s not writing the books.  

It’s not deciding what matters.

That part is still entirely mine.

What it does is sit beside me — like a quiet editor.

I test ideas.  

I ask questions.  

I push back.  

I refine.

Sometimes I arrive with something half-formed and unclear, and through the exchange, it sharpens. Not because it knows better — but because it helps me see more clearly what I already think.

In that sense, it’s not very different from the kinds of conversations I’ve always valued.

The difference is availability.

It’s there when I’m working late.  

It doesn’t get tired.  

And it responds at the pace I’m thinking.

I know there’s a lot of anxiety around tools like this.

People worry that it replaces thinking.  

Or that it somehow diminishes the work.

But in my experience, the opposite is true.

If you don’t bring clarity, it shows.  

If you don’t bring taste, it shows.  

If you don’t bring judgement, it shows.

It amplifies what’s already there.

For me, it has become part of a broader way of working.

I draw by hand.  

I work on the iPad.  

I make books.  

And now — I think in dialogue.

Not all the time. But often enough that it has changed the rhythm of how I work.

I’m not interested in using it to produce more.

I’m interested in using it to see better.

To name things more precisely.  

To structure ideas more clearly.  

To move through uncertainty without getting stuck.

So yes — I use ChatGPT.

Openly, and without apology.

It’s not the work.  

But it’s a useful companion to it.

And like any tool, its value depends entirely on the person using it.