In January 2023, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer software in history. In March 2023, my copywriting agency lost 80% of its revenue.

No, that’s not a typo. We lost 80% of our revenue when clients (some of whom had been with me for years) decided not to renew their retainer contracts.

I had to shut down my agency, letting go of talented, hard-working people I loved with kids and college tuition payments and all the life things.

While most of my clients told me they were cutting budgets, I knew that ChatGPT’s recent popularity was somehow tied to how they were able to cut services that were once essential.

My initial reaction? Outrage.

“You’ll never replace me,” I muttered under my breath on the daily.

And like the human I am, I endured.

I didn’t pay myself much for all of 2023. My partner paid the rent and bought groceries while I struggled to claw myself out of a pit of despair and debt.

With over a decade of experience in content marketing, working with brands in every industry under the sun (including toilets and churros) AND a track record of killing it on campaigns that brought in big money for my clients…

…I couldn’t even get a part-time job at the grocery store.

By the end of 2024, my business finally started to recover financially, still saddled with a big ol’ business loan I took out to pay my team in 2023.

Today, I have a much different relationship with and outlook on AI than I did when it took so many of my clients and decimated my business.

Back then, the conversation (for me at least) was centered around whether or not AI *could* and/or *should* take jobs from creatives.

Now, the conversation (for me at least) is around survival, as it often is when we talk about living under capitalism.

The reality is AI tools make things faster, easier, and more cost-effective. So they are not going anywhere.

Like addiction, obesity, poverty, and climate change, I believe AI is an intersectional, layered issue that cannot be solved by individual choices alone.

Simply refusing to participate doesn’t change the fact that some of us are forced to use it if we want to survive.

And needing to participate for survival doesn’t change the fact you are feeding the beast, so to speak.

I’ve been thinking about this a LOT lately as I now regularly use AI tools like ChatGPT as part of my own creative process.

I feel a LOT of shame around it.

But I feel it’s a point of survival. (More on that later.)

And I know many of you with the same questions and desire to survive (and maybe even thrive) in the hellscape we’re living in.

So like the nerdy little English major I am, I’ve decided to put together my own heroic code around using AI for writing.

*Hemingway is rolling in his grave. But he wasn’t a man without flaws. So let him roll.*

I’ll be sharing more about this with you over the next few days. And as always, I want to hear from you. Don't hesitate to reply and hit me with your thoughts.

Cheers!
Sarah Jane Burt