~ On working with AI, arguing with machines, and remembering what it means to be human. ~
Yesterday was one of those days when work consumed almost every waking hour. I sat at my laptop, meticulously testing an AI chatbot developed to support the oversight responsibilities of the Parliament of South Africa.
It was demanding work. Eighty-seven specific tests, each requiring careful attention to detail, evaluation of the responses, and precise recording of the outcomes. Every answer had to be examined, every shortcoming understood, and every result documented.
Hours passed. Morning became afternoon, afternoon slipped into evening, and eventually the rest of the household had surrendered to sleep.
I was still sitting at my laptop.
At 1:00 am this morning, I finally closed it. Exhausted, certainly, but with that deeply satisfying feeling of a task well done.
I seldom write about my work in my personal journal. Yet something about yesterday’s experience stayed with me. It was not merely the work itself, but what it revealed about a virtue I have come to appreciate more deeply: industriousness.
Just for Today, I Will Work with Diligence
Every morning, I remind myself of the five Reiki principles that I endeavour to uphold. The fourth is particularly relevant:
Just for today, I will live with honour and perform my duties and chores with diligence.
There is something wonderfully grounded about that principle. It does not promise extraordinary achievements, fame or recognition. It simply asks us to attend to what needs to be done, and to do it well.
Yesterday, that meant eighty-seven tests.
Not exactly the stuff of heroic legends. Nobody is likely to compose an epic poem about a man sitting in front of a computer, checking whether an AI chatbot provides the correct references to parliamentary documents.
Yet, strangely enough, I experienced something heroic in the ordinary act of perseverance.
I was practising industriousness.
The Unexpected Relationship Between AI and Industriousness
Much of the conversation about artificial intelligence focuses on making life easier.
AI will save us time. AI will automate tedious work. AI will relieve us of repetitive tasks, leaving us free to pursue more meaningful activities.
Perhaps.
But my own relationship with AI is developing somewhat differently.
For me, AI is becoming less about avoiding work and more about expanding my capacity to do meaningful work.
Yesterday’s testing demanded sustained human attention, judgment and patience. Perhaps, in the future, AI will perform much of this testing in a fraction of the time. But we are not quite there yet.
And I am discovering that working effectively with AI requires its own form of craftsmanship.
Like a blacksmith of old who understood the temperament of his hammer, the heat of his forge and the behaviour of the metal, the modern knowledge worker must understand the tools of the digital age.
Knowing that a tool exists is not the same as knowing how to use it.
And occasionally, the tool appears to have an opinion of its own.
Arguing with Artificial Intelligence After Midnight
By late evening, I had completed the testing and needed to consolidate the results into a meaningful report.
I turned to Microsoft Copilot for assistance.
Surely, I thought, this was precisely the kind of work AI was supposed to make easier.
I had the data. I knew what I wanted. I explained the task carefully.
Copilot disagreed.
Apparently, what I wanted could not be done.
I explained again.
Copilot remained unconvinced.
I refined my instructions, clarified my expectations and tried different approaches. Copilot continued to insist on limitations that I was increasingly convinced existed more in our conversation than in the technology itself.
There is something rather absurd about arguing with a machine after midnight.
With a human colleague, one might eventually suggest a cup of coffee, take a short break or agree to disagree.
With AI, there is no coffee break. There is no sympathetic expression. There is only another beautifully worded explanation of why it cannot do what you have just spent twenty minutes explaining.
I found myself in the extraordinary position of trying to motivate an artificial intelligence to believe in its own potential.
“Come on, surely you can do this!”
The machine, metaphorically speaking, folded its digital arms.
By then I was tired enough to suspect that perhaps the artificial intelligence was not the only one experiencing limitations.
I could almost hear the conversation:
“Copilot, I know this is possible.”
“I’m sorry, but I cannot.”
“Have you actually tried?”
“I understand your frustration.”
“No, you don’t. It’s after midnight!”
Eventually, I decided that enough was enough.
I switched to ChatGPT and gave it essentially the same task.
And there it was.
A beautifully structured report, better written and presented than I would probably have managed myself at that hour.
I stared at the screen.
All that arguing!
It was rather like spending an hour persuading one apprentice to pick up a hammer, only to have another walk into the workshop and finish the job.
I could only smile.
But the experience taught me something important. Different AI tools have different strengths and limitations, and learning to work with them requires experimentation, discernment and, occasionally, a considerable sense of humour.
More importantly, the result was neither exclusively mine nor exclusively the machine’s.
It emerged from our collaboration.
Human intention, judgment and persistence combined with artificial intelligence to produce something neither would have produced quite as effectively alone.
That, to me, is the emerging craftsmanship of a tech-savvy world.
From a Small Task to a Much Bigger Purpose
At some point during that long night, I became aware of the contrast between what I was doing and why I was doing it.
In my immediate little world, I was a tired man sitting in front of a laptop, arguing with an AI assistant about a report.
Not particularly glamorous.
But in the bigger picture, something far more meaningful was happenings.
I was contributing to the development of an intelligent information capability that could strengthen parliamentary oversight and transparency.
Parliament has the responsibility to hold the executive accountable, to examine the use of public resources and to represent the interests of citizens.
These responsibilities depend on access to reliable information, the ability to understand that information and the capacity to act upon it.
If we can make parliamentary information more accessible, more understandable and more useful, we can strengthen the ability of Parliament to fulfil its constitutional responsibilities.
And perhaps, in some small way, strengthen democracy itself.
Suddenly, those eighty-seven tests acquired a different significance.
They were no longer simply eighty-seven technical exercises.
They were small acts of diligence contributing to something that might continue delivering value for years to come.
I find this deeply inspiring.
Industriousness is not simply about working hard. It is about applying ourselves diligently to work that serves a worthwhile purpose.
The scale of an individual action does not necessarily reveal the significance of its contribution.
A single test may seem insignificant. A reliable system built through thousands of such acts may change how an institution functions.
And institutions, in turn, shape the world in which we live.
Lofty Thoughts Must Find Their Way into Practice
This brings me back to something I have reflected upon many times in my life.
Our noblest thoughts, our ethical aspirations and our sincere intentions cannot remain disconnected from practice.
It is easy to speak about integrity, responsibility, service and the desire to make a difference.
But these ideals acquire substance only when translated into action.
And action, sustained over time, creates the possibility of lasting benefit.
Perhaps this is what industriousness really means to me.
It is the willingness to give practical expression to what I believe is worthwhile.
It is the bridge between intention and realisation.
It is not enough to imagine a better world. We must participate in bringing it into being, even when that participation consists of painstakingly testing a chatbot until one o’clock in the morning.
There is something reassuring about this understanding.
We do not always need grand gestures to make meaningful contributions.
Sometimes we simply need to do today’s work well.
Perhaps AI Will Give Me More Years of Meaningful Work
Another thought emerged during my reflections.
As I grow older, I am increasingly aware that my time, energy and capacity are not unlimited.
Yet my curiosity has certainly not diminished. Neither has my desire to contribute.
Perhaps AI offers something more valuable than convenience.
Perhaps it offers the possibility of extending our productive lives, enabling us to continue contributing knowledge, experience and judgment long after the traditional boundaries of working life.
Not by replacing our humanity, but by amplifying our capacity to express it.
I rather like that possibility.
Imagine combining decades of accumulated experience with tools that make it possible to explore, analyse, create and communicate with greater reach than ever before.
The potential is exciting.
Of course, it still requires us to learn the tools, recognise their limitations and remain willing to experiment.
And sometimes to argue with them after midnight.
But perhaps that is a small price to pay for the opportunity to remain industrious, curious and engaged with life.
The Return to My Handwritten Journal
And now, here I am.
The laptop is closed. The reports are completed. The digital tools have been put aside.
I am sitting with my handwritten journal, allowing my thoughts to emerge slowly through the movement of a pen across paper.
No prompts.
No algorithms suggesting the next sentence.
No artificial intelligence offering to improve my wording, restructure my paragraphs or make my thoughts more concise.
Just me, my pen and the unfolding movement of my own awareness.
And I realise how important this simple practice has become.
In a world increasingly shaped by automation, I need spaces where my own agency is nurtured.
Spaces where I do not outsource the process of thinking.
Where I allow thoughts to arise without immediately asking a machine to organise them.
Where I can experience the uncertainty, the pauses, the wandering associations and the occasional surprising insight that emerges from my own consciousness.
There is a certain irony in spending an entire day exploring the capabilities of artificial intelligence, only to return to one of the simplest technologies humanity has ever developed.
A pen and paper.
Yet I do not experience these two worlds as contradictory.
AI extends my capacity to act in the world.
My journal nurtures the inner agency from which meaningful action arises.
One helps me do more.
The other helps me remain conscious of why I am doing it.
Perhaps that is the balance I am seeking.
To embrace the extraordinary possibilities of technology without surrendering the human qualities that give those possibilities meaning.
To remain industrious without becoming merely productive.
To use powerful tools without becoming dependent on them for my sense of purpose.
And to remember that the ultimate measure of our technological progress is not how much work machines can do for us, but how much more fully we can participate in life because of them.
Yesterday, I worked until one in the morning.
Today, I am writing by hand.
Both are expressions of the same intention.
To live with purpose, to contribute something of value, and to remain fully human in an increasingly automated world.
© Jurgens Pieterse, 2026. All rights reserved.
