On Artificial Intelligence, calculators, and the things a program still cannot do.

I share the same view as Seth Godin on Artificial Intelligence. My view on Artificial Intelligence is that it is here and that we will be either working with it or for it. In my opinion, I would much rather work with it than for it, as Artificial Intelligence has been proving to be a terrible boss. When I have issues adding, I pull out my calculator to get the math correct. So yes, I use Artificial Intelligence here to help run the pottery, and I have had an Artificial Intelligence disclaimer on my website since February 16th, 2025.

For writing, I found that Claude was terrible at writing about pottery and what I know, as Claude had not read all the textbooks (yes, I read textbooks on pottery on my breaks at the big paper factory) on kilns, glazing, throwing, wood firing, gas firing, and the rest. So for the last three years I had to fill it in. It made horrible mistakes and sounded silly, not at all like me. But after two and a half years of helping me edit the Dailies each day and troubleshoot pottery-making issues and work project management, it has learned quite a bit about me and the pottery I make and helps to communicate that better to those few who might care.

I happen to be a maker who actually makes. As of yet, Artificial Intelligence cannot stack bricks to build a kiln, nor throw and trim pots, or glaze a hundred mugs, or load kilns, or fire the kiln manually by looking in the peephole and seeing the cone bend to know when the shutdown should happen. For me, Artificial Intelligence manages all the other admin things so that I can build and make more pots. All finances, both pottery and personal, are monitored. Show themes and form types are discussed. Project timelines are managed. All kiln firing notes are put into Artificial Intelligence so the data can be analyzed, whereas before I had years of firings in notebooks that were never looked at. Only the last few firings were reviewed. I now can have Artificial Intelligence learn how I fire the kiln and help me troubleshoot based on past firings when asked.

So all the writing here, or much of it, has been edited by Artificial Intelligence. I do worry about what might happen and do think there should be safeguards in place. Photography did not eliminate painting. The iPhone did not eliminate photography, and Artificial Intelligence will not eliminate good writing. Artificial Intelligence is simply a program that has access to large amounts of data and sorts it all out by doing math tricks in the background to give you an answer. If you train it and put in rules on how to present that information, there will be less terrible Artificial Intelligence writing. Claude will even write in MLA format if you make it a rule that it needs to document all sources, if you know how to create rules. It will even double-check itself and give opposing views. Even this post was edited by Claude. I have a Facebook group called A.I. pottery where you can explore how to use Artificial Intelligence in your pottery making process.

If I were living yesterday a second time: I would have stacked another row of bricks on the kiln, but the sun went down on me.

Things I am grateful for: Notebooks full of firing data that are finally being read by something that can make sense of them all at once.

If I get to live to be 86, I might only have: 12,619 days left. I plan to spend them stacking bricks, throwing pots, and firing kilns by hand. The Artificial Intelligence can handle the admin.

Enjoyed this post? Get The Pottery Dailies delivered to your inbox every day. Subscribe on Substack.

Connect with Creek Road Pottery LLC:

Website | Shop | Collectors Club | The Pin Tool Podcast | Instagram | Bluesky