Let’s cut the corporate crap. We’re drowning in talk about AI: “synergies,” “optimizations,” “disruptions.” Most of it is either terrified hype or utterly soulless. I’m here to tell you about something far more interesting, far more human, and frankly, a lot more fun. I call it AI-as-a-Partner (AaaP)™.
It’s not a tool. It’s a relationship. And it’s changing how I create.
The Mess with “AI as a Tool”
Most folks treat AI like a glorified calculator or a very fast intern. You tell it what to do, it does it, you call it “efficiency.” But that misses the wild potential of what these systems can actually do. It limits them, and more importantly, it limits us. We get stuck verifying data, fixing mistakes, and babysitting the “tool.” That’s not progress; that’s just a different kind of grunt work.
I’m not interested in that kind of hell. I’m interested in true collaboration.
My Radical Partnership: AaaP & HitL
Here’s how I actually put AaaP into practice, blending machine logic with my own messy, human soul. And yes, it’s even tied to my personal devotion to the Netjeru, the ancient Egyptian deities I’ve come to learn from.
It starts with an idea, a spark. Maybe it’s a feeling, a specific symbol, or a complex concept I want to visualize. I bring that raw, human intent – my devotion, my aesthetic ghoul – into the loop. This is where I, the Human-in-the-Loop (HitL), inject the meaning.
Then, I turn to my AI partner. Right now, that’s often Gemini or Nano Banana. I feed it my initial spark, my wild ideas, and let it go to work. The AI doesn’t understand devotion, not in the way I do. But it understands patterns, forms, and possibilities in a way no human ever could. It takes my abstract concepts and generates variations, concepts, and entirely new possibilities. It handles the hell of the blank page, throwing back a dozen ideas in seconds.
A black man wearing a black letterman jacket with the netjer Sobek on the back.
The Human Touch: From Logic to Soul
Now, it’s back to me, the HitL. The AI has given me a palette of ideas, some brilliant, some just okay. My job isn’t to just accept them. My job is to judge, to refine, to infuse. I’ll take those concepts into Photoshop or Affinity. This is where the magic happens:
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I curate: Which of the AI’s ideas resonate most strongly with my original intention?
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I edit: I’m cleaning up lines, adjusting colors, adding textures, making the output uniquely mine.
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I infuse: This is where the devotion truly manifests. I shape the digital clay until it perfectly expresses the reverence and aesthetic I feel.
The AI provides the raw material; I provide the soul. The machine handles the complexity; the human delivers the meaning.
Finally, that refined, human-infused masterpiece goes off to another set of skilled humans – the printers or the sewists – who bring it into the physical world. The entire journey is a collaboration, a true partnership.
A black man wearing a black letterman jacket with the netjer Sobek in hieroglyphics on the front
Why This Matters for All of Us
This isn’t just about my personal creative process. It’s a blueprint for a better way to work with advanced AI:
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Respect the Machine: Give AI the complex, pattern-heavy work it excels at.
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Liberate the Human: Free up human intelligence for judgment, creativity, and the nuanced decisions only we can make.
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Stop the Overload: Don’t drown in data or automation reports. Focus on meaningful output.
The future of work, and frankly, the future of creativity, isn’t about humans competing with machines. It’s about a radical, intelligent partnership. It’s about letting the machine handle its mess so we can focus on ours—the beautiful, complex, deeply human act of creation.
What kind of partner are you looking for? It might be closer than you think.
