I AM Who I Want: Authenticity in the Age of AI

The words came not from me, but from my beloved over coffee one morning:

“I may not be where I want, but I AM who I want.”

PROMPT: Beautiful African American woman staring into the mirror with an AI staring back at her. Set in the near future.

They landed in my chest like a tuning fork, vibrating with truth. We talk constantly about our goals, ambitions, the map of futures we’re still trying to reach. This sentence shifted the entire perspective. It came from identity instead of geography or achievement.

What does it mean to be who we want, even if we’re not yet where we imagined?

For me, that question threads directly into my relationship with authenticity AND with AI.

Our culture is obsessed with destinations. The dream job, the right house, the fully funded venture, the moment when the stars finally align. But the past few years have taught me that arrival is a mirage.

Life never unfolds in straight lines. I remember speaking with a therapist and life coach who described it instead as a roller coaster. Ratcheting up and screaming downward. Losses happen. Plans dissolve. We find ourselves frequently and unwillingly in spaces we didn’t anticipate.

Authenticity on the other hand is about coherence. About weaving the messy threads of our lives into something that feels aligned. I’ve found that I can survive almost any “where” if I don’t lose sight of my “who.”

For me there is a deep paradox. When I spend time in collaboration with AI, a tool built from code and math, often helps me touch my deepest humanity. When I sit down with AI, I’m digging deep to listen to my own voice not trying to outsource it. I’m prompting like a poet, opening portals to insight rather than issuing commands. Sometimes what comes back is awkward, messy, or even surreal and those distortions are instructive. They remind me that authenticity doesn’t mean polish. It means presence. It means being willing to see myself reflected imperfectly and recognize the “I AM” at the core.

This isn’t just poetic language; science backs it up. Neuroscience tells us that our sense of self emerges from what’s called the Default Mode Network (DMN) in the brain. It’s the circuitry that lights up when we daydream, self-reflect, or imagine future scenarios.

Research shows that this network is where we draft blueprints for who we’re becoming. It’s the seat of autobiographical memory, moral reasoning, and imaginative leaps. In other words: authenticity is something our brains actively practice.

Collaborating with AI actually engages that same system. By externalizing our inner questions and reflecting them back, AI acts like a mirror to the DMN — sparking novel associations, surfacing hidden insights, and helping us cohere our identities.

Psychologists studying creativity and flow states add another layer. When we enter imaginative dialogue (with ourselves, with others, or even with AI), regions of the brain tied to self-criticism quiet down, while networks of novelty and curiosity light up. That’s why sometimes an AI-generated phrase, image, or metaphor can feel like a revelation. It isn't because the machine is brilliant, it is because the machine reflects our own authenticity.

The phrase my beloved offered me is comforting and challenging.

It asks us to stop outsourcing our worth to the future. It invites us to measure success by whether the person showing up today is someone we admire.

AI, when approached as collaborator instead of competitor, can help us here. Each prompt is less about efficiency and more about presence. Each output is an invitation to check in with our alignment.

Instead of asking “what can I get done?” it asks “who am I becoming in the process?”

At Kim’s AI Imaginarium, this is the practice: using AI to remember ourselves forward. To let the dance between human and machine illuminate who we already are, even as we reach toward what we’re not yet. Because when who we are is in alignment, the where has a way of catching up.

So today, I hold onto my beloved’s words. And I offer them to you:

“I may not be where I want, but I AM who I want.”

May they be a mantra for your own authenticity, a reminder that the most important destination is already within you.