The Grief of What Isn’t Real: Proof of Life in the Age of AI (Part 2) with Bill Kirst

Something is shifting again, and this time it feels subtle enough to miss. We are using AI to negotiate our bills. To draft our emails. To guide our conversations. Scripts are talking to scripts while we sit in the middle, repeating words we did not fully form ourselves.

Most of us have not stopped to ask what that does to us.

In the second part of this AI conversation, Amy and guest, Bill Kirst, go deeper into the grief of living in a world that no longer feels fully real. What happens when our conversations are optimized instead of lived? When conflict is copy pasted instead of worked through? When music moves us, only to discover no human voice ever stood behind it? When art is polished into perfection without the trembling hands that once created it?

What is the cost of editing out the pause, the breath, the crack in the voice? What happens when debate is replaced with algorithmic agreement? When we slowly outsource the friction that once shaped our character, our creativity, our leadership?

This conversation is not anti technology. It is a call to discernment. A call back to vinyl scratches and imperfect storytelling. A reminder that inspiration does not live in speed or scale. It lives in depth. In effort. In presence.

If we hand over too much of ourselves, we may wake up one day asking a harder question.

Who am I, if I no longer sound like me?

Listen closely. Notice what rises in your body. Then decide what parts of your humanity you are willing to protect.

Threads We Pulled On:

1. The Collapse Of Trust In A Deepfake Era – Confront the grief that surfaces when you can no longer distinguish what is real and begin questioning what you once trusted.
2. Creativity Without Imperfection – Consider what happens to art, music, and storytelling when machines remove the friction that gives creative work its meaning.
3. The Habit Of Disconnection – Notice how repeated reliance on AI tools slowly conditions you to outsource tension, conflict, and authentic expression.
4. Nostalgia As Resistance – Reclaim tangible artifacts and embodied experiences as a way to anchor yourself in what feels undeniably human.
5. The Reverse Renaissance – Envision a future where you deepen discernment, return to richer wells of inspiration, and choose to create with intention.

You can listen to Bill’s episode - AI & The Poetry of Our Existence with Bill Kirst here - https://create-magic-at-work-r.captivate.fm/episode/ai-the-poetry-of-our-existence-with-bill-kirst/

About the Guest:

Bill Kirst is an author, technology leader, podcast host, military veteran, mentor, educator and mindfulness practitioner. He has been writing stories, poems and lyrics for as long as he can remember. He hails from a long line of storytellers and educators who are deeply inspired, moved and healed by the power of the written word. Mixing in melody, chords and a chorus generate a powerful response toward healing. This is why he sees the world through a songwriter's eyes, and why his first published work was a collection of poetry. And his second book is focuses on how we hold on to our humanity in this era of AI....