Why AI is not your friend.
Watch out for the enthusiastic yes man (or robot, as the case may be).
Bonjour, je suis Amy, and I’m fluent in French.
That means for me, and any French speaker, pronouncing ChatGPT introduces an unexpected challenge. In French, ChatGPT is phonetically pronounced “Chat, J’ai pété,” which literally translates to: Cat, I farted.
Please imagine with me, for a moment, all the times you’ve heard someone talking about ChatGPT, discussing it on the news, or debating its merits during a podcast. Now, try to imagine that, every time you watched a news anchor talk about ChatGPT, they had to say the words “Cat, I farted” with a straight face.
Ridiculous, no?
That, in a nutshell, is how I feel about AI: Ridiculous, and to be taken seriously.
Let me explain.
I’m a writer, and I use AI almost every day. It’s been a huge time-saver when it comes to proofing content for errors, catching small mistakes like typos, as well as larger ones, like an incorrect date on a print-ready file.
But I have also had many, many tussles with the robot—so much so, that, should technology arise and come for angsty creatives, I worry I would be among the first to go.
Here’s an example:
Me: Please check this sentence for errors.
Chat: Your sentence is mostly correct, but you should replace the semicolon with a period.
Me: Why?
Chat: It isn’t grammatically correct.
Me: …
Chat: *smug*
Me: If I can replace the semicolon with a period, then it is, indeed, grammatically correct.
Chat: You’re right! My B. I just don’t like semicolons, LOL.
I’m paraphrasing here, of course, but you get the idea: AI is not guaranteed to tell you correct information—not by a long shot.
And that, my friends, is the first problem with Chat: It lies.
But I continue to use it!
I even use Chat for brainstorming. It helps me winnow down ideas and outline potential strategy. It gives me gift ideas, lists of unconventional word choices, and (this is embarrassing) advice.
Chat tends to be enthusiastic about every idea, showering me with puffery and making me feel, well, GREAT.
But here’s the second, bigger problem about AI: It lies.
(Wait—wasn’t that the first problem with AI? Yes, I lied to you. See how it feels?)
ChatGPT’s biggest issue is that it’s a lying, gaslighting yes-man (or robot, as the case may be).
Don’t get me wrong: supplying false information is a big problem. But misinforming the general public on the rules of grammar as they pertain to a semicolon isn’t the end of the world; I don’t like it, but I’ll live (see what I did there?).
On the other hand, telling me—and you—that every idea, tagline, or strategy is a good one, could be the end of someone’s world.
The truth is, not all your ideas are winners.
Not all of mine are, either. Some of them are actually quite bad, and I need a real, human, down-to-earth, ever-kind team to gently tell me when I’ve missed the mark. Otherwise, we would sink time, money, and ultimately our reputation into something that should never have gotten off the ground.
All because of Cat, I farted.
So, in case you were getting lulled into a false sense of ego (guilty!), let me remind you: Just because a robot thinks you have a great idea/headline/strategy, does not mean it will work on actual humans.
Remember to surround yourself with people who encourage you to grow and inspire you to get creative, without losing yourself to the ever-happy glow of AI.
And, if you find yourself forgetting that AI is just a robot, softly whisper to yourself, “Cat, I farted,” to remind yourself that it is, after all, ridiculous.
