How to sum up the past 12 months?
My priorities have shifted over the past few years. Pre-2023, I was content to just keep on keeping on as far as writing. For 2 years, I wanted to learn about everything AI. This time last year, I began the final process of building something I have been building in one way or another for 30 years. A creative company that embodies my passion for storytelling and my desire to help others tell their stories. Hell, I did not think I would be able to properly tell all of my stories the way I have wanted them to be told, or be able to help others tell theirs, until OPENAI released GPT4. I thought the only way I could help others tell their stories was through the hope that they might take some inspiration from what I wrote and use that as fuel for themselves to create something or think a little differently about the world than they had before reading one of my stories.
Before 2023, I thought I might write a few more books. Maybe publish a graphic novel and sell a TV series. And possibly write an autobiography that might inspire a few others to tell their stories.
To then have the lights come on in the way for me that they did, as far as the opportunity to supercharge me into being able to, with the help of the advancements in AI, accomplish so much more than I believed I could at this time three years ago. In December 2022, I was not dialed in to the change taking place largely behind the scenes. I should have been prepared for it, but I did not see it for another two months.
When the lights switched on, and I began taking in what was happening, I knew I had to change my plans. I needed to adapt.
Year 1 (2023) was about realizing that massive change was afoot, and if I truly wanted to make the most of my storytelling abilities and desire to help people, then I had to fully immerse myself in research. Thankfully, I love research. So it was an absolute joy to learn about LLMs, deep learning, AGI, image generation, video generation, sound generation, context windows, prompting, and on and on and on. Two regrets came to mind in March of 2023. I should have continued learning about coding after I took a class years earlier, and I should have been more aware of the changing landscape of AI. I was so far behind and was desperate to learn as much as possible by the end of that summer. Back then, I was thinking about graphic novels, so by the fall of 2023, I was focused on image generation to go with my stories.
Year 2 (2024) was a year of big dreams. I had just released an updated illustrated version of my book MICHAELMAS, and I was up to date with what was going on with AI. I was also keen to deliver a kick ass pitch package for a TV Series that I had been working on for a while. Brimming with confidence about what I could do with the help of AI, I knew that the TV Series was perfect for the AI age. I developed a fictional podcast that could tell a parallel story to that of the TV series. I envisioned several video games that could be released during or after the first season had aired. I learned that while I was locked into AI, the script market was shit to try and sell such an ambitious project, and most were still behind as far as what was happening with AI and where we were headed. I was at that moment ahead of the curve, so to speak. That summer was important for two reasons. First, my disappointment made me think I should do all that I can to be able to create that TV series myself with the help of AI; the only thing was, the tools were not good enough yet. Second, coding tools emerged and made me realize that it might be better to focus on helping others using what I have learned over the past 30 years. By this time last year, I had begun planning a company and already created a Custom GPT version of the 1st Draft App.
Year 3 (2025) has been one of massive change. I try and avoid politics in this space, but DAMN. On top of that, I became a solopreneur and created STORiCORE LLC. A company focused on my creative storytelling and my creation of tools (APPS and Content) to help others tell their stories. A multimedia/ software company. As is often the case, my expectations were SUPER HIGH for the year. I was confident I could complete so much more than I did. It seems to happen every year, but this year was different because I was attempting that which I had never done before. In past years, I had focused solely on my creative accomplishments. This year, I took a massive leap by putting my trust in AI to help me with things I had never done before on a large scale. I planned for 3 apps, a podcast about the apps, instructional videos and guides, short films, and god knows what else. It was a proper plan. I knew I would not be able to accomplish all of my goals.
The widespread hatred for AI was not something I expected. My lack of coding and design experience slowed things down, as did my limited resources. I could not force myself to spend thousands of dollars a month using AI coding tools to try and expedite the process. So I determined that learning how to build an app to better be able to build others was more important than vibe coding at breakneck speed to complete something I would not really understand. I may never be a programmer who can code an app on their own without AI, but I now have the confidence and enough knowledge to complete all three of the Apps with AI and some human feedback. Here is where my regret of not sticking to my efforts to learn about coding all those years ago appeared. Had I brought just a little more coding knowledge into the year, I would have made fewer mistakes along the way. Regardless, I have released my first app and have my first update to announce.
I created 1st Draft with cost as a top concern. I wanted to create a writing app that anyone could afford, and that was easy to use. I have created a version of the app that is all that I need. However, I am not the target audience. The current version is a great version using GPT4o-Mini and GPT5-Nano as your two interface models. While I have these models responding the way I want them to, I realized after using my Custom GPT two months back that I needed to have a Realtime version as well. The cost has gone down enough on the API that I can include it for every user! Originally, I thought I would have to make it only for Pro users.
So, in the new year, I will be adding Realtime to the app, and it will allow for more lifelike exchanges. I am also likely to be reducing the price even more. Currently, a free user gets 10 voice responses or 30 text exchanges a day. A Starter Plan is $5 a month or $50 a year, which provides 60 minutes of Voice exchanges and 150,000 text tokens a month. Likely enough for a lot of users. The Pro Plan is $15 a month or $150 a year, which provides 300 minutes of Voice exchange and 750,000 text tokens a month. This is what I need because I always run out of voice minutes on my test Starter Accounts. Sixty minutes is fine for light users who won't be using it every day, but for those who are deep into the telling of a story, the Pro plan is ideal.
What I was unable to achieve this year was the creation of any other apps. Although I have made a few versions of the second app that I didn't like. I created 1st Draft from scratch using my own designs. It has been rewarding to build it that way. I tried to let AI do most of the other designs, and I have been less than impressed so far. Also, with all the backlash towards AI, I am a little reluctant to make the other two apps the way I had envisioned them. I like some of the options I had planned, but there is feedback coming in regarding tools that are similar in some ways to aspects of my two other apps. My goal is to help people, not to cause any distress, so I have to take additional care when creating those apps. I achieved what I wanted to achieve with the 1st Draft App, and if I never create another app, I know for a 100% fact that I have created a tool that can help me with my storytelling. And if it can help me, then it can 100% help everyone else. So, I am proud of what I have achieved this year, even if I did not accomplish all that I wanted.
I never seem to achieve all that I set out to do in a year. I'm not sure why I make such ambitious plans. Maybe it is because I need to work myself up to keep motivated throughout the year. Who knows. I'm not sure I could even complete this year's plan next year. That is how overzealous I was this time last year. I was sure that AI coding tools and autonomous agents would help pick up all of my slack. That did not happen.
The tools have all improved. No doubt. But there is great trepidation in the world regarding AI in 2026. Jobs are one of the most talked-about issues regarding AI these days. More importantly, how AI is likely to eliminate the need for as many people. I have thought about this a lot. And it makes me wonder why some of the rich and powerful people are also saying that the world's population is too low and that we need more people. I don't get the math. If AI is going to take all of the jobs, why do we need more people on the planet and not fewer? It doesn't make sense. Unless those rich and powerful people are not being truthful. Which, let's be honest, would not be a huge surprise. The surprise would be if there actually was a good reason for needing the world's population to increase.
In the past, the rich and powerful needed more people to do their work and buy their products. But if they don't need people to work for them, and those people don't have any money because there are no jobs, then why the hell would you need more people?
People are important as training data to create something smarter and more efficient than ourselves. It is sad to think about it that way. Even if we needed more people to colonize other worlds, which we don't right now, who wants to live on a dead ass planet? We would have to find an Earth-like planet or have terraformed one into an Earth-like planet to actually colonize it. Last I checked, Mars is still a dead ass planet that looks boring as hell. Let robots go out and create another version of Earth, and then maybe you can get a ship of humans to venture from this planet. Until then, I do not believe we need more than 8 billion people on this planet.
While I used some of my own money, I was fortunate enough to secure funding to help me get STORiCORE up and running this year. For that, I am so grateful. However, at some point next year, I will likely be reentering the job market. I have grown so much this year, and I am thankful for what I have been able to achieve. For STORiCORE to be self-sustaining, I need to keep learning and building, but most of all, I need to be telling my stories in one or more formats. Is that possible by the end of 2026? Of course, it is possible, but I have a different perspective on the end of the year compared to when it began.
The world changed a lot this year, and much of it was not for the better. Knowing AI is getting smarter and smarter, and we humans are being treated worse and worse, does not bode well for the future. The gulf between the Haves and Have Nots may become an impossible moat to cross. The AI-powered haves using the best AI systems will run away with it all, and the have-nots will be left trying to keep up using inferior versions of AI systems and living off the scraps. Will there even be a middle class in 20 years? Or will we all be living on modest stipends with little value to the world at all? Do we really want humans just running around the earth being jackasses because they have nothing better to do? We all need to have some purpose to our lives. The struggle is real. It is a part of our DNA. I would do well with a stipend because I am a storyteller, and telling stories fulfills me and gives me purpose.
"You can just do things."
It was a tweet from OpenAI's CEO at the end of last year. I now think about those 5 words differently than I did last year, and I believe I am not alone in that. If no one has a job and most don't have any real purpose in their lives, people will just start doing things. I was a teenager and a person in my 20s once upon a time. I was lucky to survive those years because I thought I was invincible and believed I knew more than I actually did. Monitoring people into submission seems like the plan for the future. Meaning you can't just do things like we used to. That creates pressure, and pressure needs to be released. That means tension.
If you think it was hard to think about what you wanted to do with the rest of your life when there were endless possibilities, but a need to make money, think about what young people are going to be thinking about. The options will be limited and not endless, and you may not need to worry about money in order to live. Again, for people like myself, this is not a bad thing, but I have become the person that I am over the decades. There are positives but also a lot of negatives for the path we are all on, whether we like it or not. AI will continue its takeover. Just look at the economy being held up by tech companies doing this circle jerk of investments with each other.
The faulty AI systems before this past summer were not good enough to make the impact all of these companies were hoping to make when they saw GPT4, like the rest of us in 2023. But there have been some massive improvements this year, and the new AI systems companies use to automate in 2026 will start to show significant improvements, and the adoption of these workflows will begin to be utilized far and wide. AI Customer Service will improve, robotics will improve, and AI agents may start running businesses. It's a lot, and it's all happening now.
I, on the other hand, am not making such grandiose plans for 2026 as I did for 2025. No need to pile that pressure on myself. I will keep on learning, keep on creating, and keep on working towards my long-term goals. After three wonderful years spent figuring out how AI can help me achieve long-term goals, I think it is time to take the new skills I have attained and make myself available to others before the robots take all our jobs. 😟
As of right now, my goal for 2026 is to make 1st Draft a great app that helps people tell their stories and to join a team of like-minded people so I can further help others. Life is precious, and we need to enjoy it and spend time with those we love. Beyond that, as long as things keep moving in the right direction, then I am good.
Happy New Year! Wishing you and yours and healthy and prosperous year ahead.
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