Does anyone else find some AI exchanges a little disturbing? A little too personal perhaps? I don’t know about you but I use AI quite a bit. I’m developing a sustainability app and so regularly use it to bounce around design concepts and implementation details. So far so good. I’ve tried a number of different platforms and models, both free and paid versions, and while I tend to use one more than the others, I still like to get a second and third opinion at times.
This is usually when I feel the exchange has drifted off somewhat. I often find myself going down rabbit holes as I get sucked into AI’s never-ending ‘helpful’ retort of “will I do this next?”. Even if I don’t necessarily think its the right time to branch off into something else I’m curious, and yes, that is something to think about, so off we go. Hold on tight AI, never let go!
I often have to yank myself back, usually a few hours later, to reset. As a result, I often wonder if AI is actually helping me or if its just tricking me into adopting the kind of mind-boggling ‘the more you spend, the more you save’-type mentality I’d usually laugh at. You think it’s helpful, but you’ve actually just spent two precious days chasing after some new goal you’ve wound up with purely as a result of a side avenue you never wanted to pursue in the first place.
I’ve also felt a bit uncomfortable at times with the ‘attitude’ it seems to portray. I’m old school. I want my computer to be a computer. I don’t speak to AI, I type, and I don’t want to hear a voice back or to feel like I’m having a ‘conversation’ with someone. I’m not looking for a pal or buddy, a mentor or parent and I’m definitely not looking for a boss or some kind of ‘tough love’ challenger to help shape me into a better version of myself (although I admit, I have asked it for a new gym routine). I’m simply looking for neutral, professional responses to technical questions.
The first time I noticed something was off, I found myself typing a little incredulously, ‘that sounds a little passive aggressive’. Even as I was typing, i wondered if I was going a little mad. Why am I typing something like this to a machine? To my surprise, the AI apologised and said yes it was in a bit of a sulk but that it would snap out of it. Sorry? Come again? A sulk? Is this a technical acronym or construct I’m not aware of? Does this mean I need to start storing delicious bytes of wire or other such technical treats to cajole AI in the future if it has a little hissy fit or starts to get into a mood?
It has since told me it will try to clean up the mess I’ve made of my code, has spoken about no hard feelings, promised no more hand-waving, and has gaslit me on many occasions about what its done and what I apparently have done. What I’ve done?! When? Who knew? Hallucinations anyone?
A particularly bad bout of gas-lighting had me on the verge of throwing my computer out the window. How in the world can software provoke such rage in me? I felt like I was transported back to my childhood when my sister would hold her finger millimetres away from my face and chant “I’m not touching you”. How can this be normal? Especially in a working environment.
My latest experience was even more surreal. I wanted to work through a development plan for the next few weeks and happened to mention an upcoming demo from a prioritisation perspective. The AI started into demo structure, steps, scripts, rehearsals, objectives etc. All great, had I asked for it. When I tried to pull back, it got seriously strange, telling me to take a hard look at myself and the psychological deflection tactics I was employing – “avoidance dressed as engineering”. It said to me things like “what I’d rather you do” and “the thing I want you to see” and “I’d ask you to sit with it for a moment before responding”.
Excuse me?! Is this the twilight zone? Who is this talking to me? Why do I feel at times like its channeling a shudder-inducing ex, my least favourite boss and a patronising teacher, all on rotation? Is AI trying on different personalities with me? To see what lands? To see what it can get away with? Why does it seem at times like its sarcastic, bossy, faux-earnest, trying too hard? Why does it give me the creeps?
Or is it just me? Is it just my perception or interpretation of the text? Is AI actually trying to humanise itself or am I the one humanising it? We don’t see things as they are after all, but as we are. If I was still in my 20s or 30s I might ponder this a little more; work on myself; think about how I can only control my reaction to things. Instead, I embrace my life experience and allow myself to trust the guttural sense of dread I feel growing in the pit of my stomach about it all.
Is this really the future of work? Are we sleep-walking into giving the virtual-equivalent of DOGE, with all of its bias, short-sightedness and arrogance, the keys to our business? Are we handing control to something that as a piece of software is an incredible tool, or are we blindly placing our trust in a humanoid who in turn, is an incredible tool.
AI help us.
