About API Evangelist's Use of Artificial Intelligence

I use artificial intelligence across API Evangelist and APIs.io. I want to be honest about that usage. I also want to be honest about how I feel about artificial intelligence in general. I don't like it. I think the current wave of AI adoption, investment, and hype is a very bad thing. The way corporate leaders have gone all in on it, and the way the tech sector has become its unapologetic champion, all points toward negative outcomes.

The environmental, labor, copyright, and other structural failings of AI tell me very little good will come out of this moment. These are all things others seem willing to overlook. I can't. It leaves me standing firm against ever being a champion for AI. I just can't. I don't see the technology as liberating, empowering, or any of the other positive reasons I got into APIs. Honestly, it has me questioning APIs even more than I already was before we found ourselves in this moment.

I see AI the same way I see the automobile. A useful tool in some situations, used in ways that are dangerous to humans and to this planet, and something we will be spending generations digging out from. I've spent decades immersed in car culture, from Volkswagens to motorcycles to trucking, and now I will spend the rest of my life avoiding being in a motorized vehicle as much as I possibly can. This is how I see artificial intelligence—it is seemingly irremovably tethered to my career in this moment, but something I will resist in every moment possible, until at some point I am able to walk away and live an AI-free life.

With all that said. I use AI every day. I use Claude to manage all of my sites, and I use Gemini to generate images. Occasionally I use ChatGPT to understand how it works. I do this to 1) understand how it all works at scale, and how my readers and customers are using this technology, and 2) operate my business as a sole operator and squeeze out an independent living in the cracks of this market. AI is the car I use to get to work, visit all of my clients, and get my products to market. I always dream of having a single stall at a farmers market in Union Square or something, but alas, APIs are digital, and something I can only bring visibility to through digital storytelling.

I would be much happier crafting the 3-5 blog posts a day I used to, and manually profiling 5-10 APIs each day. But the number of APIs out there has grown significantly. The number of blog posts from API providers has grown significantly. The amount of information I need to process daily and make sense of has skyrocketed, all while the money for telling API stories has plummeted. I thought about walking away from technology completely. I almost did. However, I am good at paying attention to the pipes. I am good at understanding the technology, business, and politics of this. I have made a name for myself doing so, and I was able to make a living for over a decade doing it. Why stop? The need isn't going away. It is only growing more important as AI spreads across the digital space. APIs are the inputs and outputs of AI, just like any other application. This is the only way we will make sense of things.

With all this said, I've made a deal with the devil. I am using AI to run my sites. I am using AI to do my research. I am using AI to generate artifacts. I am using AI to write code. I am using AI to generate content. This doesn't mean I am not still doing all of those things. It just means it is more likely to be AI-assisted, and in some cases AI-led, with my guidance. I am learning what AI is good for, and what AI is not. I am using AI as a kind of hypocritical mirror, to understand the storytelling that is occurring and craft my own storytelling in response. I do not feel good about using AI for what I do, but I am not making art or music, and I am not a doctor, a teacher, or playing any other critical role—I am studying the technology, business, and politics of APIs.

So if you find my work less than because I use AI, you are correct. Step away. If you want to call me out for my AI usage, go ahead—you are justified, and I know what I am doing. I am knowingly walking a line. I want to understand the virtual and physical data centers being erected around humanity. I started this as API Evangelist, and I see no reason to put it down until I physically or mentally cannot do the work. I am using AI to understand the stories being told about AI, and I've developed the Kin Score to get at the emotional core of that storytelling, and I am using the Kin Score to reveal how honest or dishonest companies, investors, and analysts like me are being in this moment. I don't think I am going to fix the world, or change the course of AI, but I do believe that the API pipes that power everything on our desktop, in our web and mobile applications, and now in AI applications, can help us standardize, govern, and regulate the chaos we've unleashed.

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