Artificial is another word for fake
Thoughts on artificial intelligence and real relationships.
Last month my feed has been flooded with AI images, from soulless ghibli portraits to those horrible „starter packs“ so I decided to write this month’s newsletter on the topic.
I started using ChatGPT a month ago, when I sprained my ankle and started asking the AI for medical advice. I used to be someone who googled all my symptoms and self-diagnosed all kinds of conditions. To my surprise ChatGPT was not a lot more informative than my google searches, but a lot more compassionate. I felt like the AI validated my feelings, listened to me, encouraged me, maybe even coddled me.
When I confessed this new habit to a REAL friend, he told me he too has been talking to ChatGPT. Not about medical advice, but about how to have a difficult conversation with his boss, or what he could eat for dinner. Somehow this didn’t sit right with me. I justified my own habits with my health anxiety and the fact that I couldn’t just walk up to a doctor’s office every time the pain in my ankle changed. But asking for advice on a difficult conversation or inspiration for dinner, seemed like the kind of things that he could have asked ME, instead of ChatGPT. And then I realised I was no better. I have quite a few friends who studied sports medicine, or who have had the same injury. I could have asked for their advice or to compare our experiences, and I would have, before starting to talk to the chatbot.
When I asked my friend about WHY he preferred the robot to a friend, he told me he didn’t want to bother anyone with all his problems. Just like I was less ashamed to tell an AI about my anxieties, than to send daily foot pics to my friends.
But where is this fear of being annoying coming from? I don’t think I was ever bothered by a friend asking me for advice. On the contrary, I am usually happy to hear your worries and share my thoughts, because isn’t it those things that build our friendships? For every foot pic I sent you, you can send me a picture of a hundred wedding dresses that you are trying to choose between. And if someone would be annoyed by me, wouldn’t that also be a good thing to know? To be told, to stop overthinking it, stop annoying everyone, stop driving yourself crazy. Whereas ChatGPT would keep coddling me endlessly, because that’s what it’s programmed to do.
I have so many friends across the world, that I wish I stayed in better contact with, and maybe the solution to that is to randomly text someone about the pain in my foot, or ask for advice on a difficult conversation, or for a recipe recommendation, because I’m hungry and I have no idea what to have for dinner.
I’m not making all of this up, I read somewhere (= saw a meme about), how questions are how we build our relationships. So next time you want to ask ChatGPT, think about who you know, who could answer that. And I am sure they will be happy to hear from you. If you are really crazy you could even ask a stranger, there are so many here online, who knows, maybe you’ll even make a new friend.
As for the AI portraits… why don’t you get together with a friend and draw each other? I’m sure you’ll have a good time, two funny portraits to share to your socials and yet another lovely memory to create REAL relationships.
And for any other illustration needs, hire me, not ChatGPT ;)
Lots of love,
Eric
P.S. If none of that was convincing for you, here are some statistics on ChatGPT’s water consumption: ChatGPT Prompts Consumes Enough Electricity Daily to Power the Empire State Building for a Year and a Half
Thank's for sharing those thoughts omg I never did see all of this AI things this way, I just thought it was, in the worst case, just laziness ! But you'r pointing another really good point for limiting the use of those little robots, which have many answers, all the kindness in the world, but neither authenticity or personality !
Artificial intelligence has changed our lives. It’s still just at the beginning of its development, and pretty soon, for kids who were born and raised with it, AI won’t feel like anything new — it’ll be as normal for them as TV was for us.
How human society will change is a really fascinating question. GPT is actually smarter than a human, plus it has endless patience and can adjust to our way of thinking. Honestly, it might not be long before people start falling in love with AI — after all, no one can listen to you as carefully as it can!
As for the energy consumption — the numbers aren’t as scary as they seem. AI does use a lot of energy, but mostly during the training phase (imagine, it basically has to read the entire internet!). After that, the energy use drops a lot, and some tasks can even be handled by a regular personal computer.
Right now, most of the energy goes into cooling systems, but there’s a fix: you could move AI during its “childhood” phase to a country with a cold climate or cheap energy, and once it’s fully trained, bring it back.
But for now, while we still have the chance to hang out with our friends — even if they’re not perfect, even if they’re a little silly sometimes — let’s not miss this chance! 😉