970x125
I was definitely one of those people who said “Please” and “Thank you” to AI while interacting with it. On a recent podcast, I was asked if I use manners in case AI takes over the world. The question made me realize something: I’d stopped saying please and thank you to AI months ago, and not because I’d decided it won’t take over.
I’d recognized that using manners was changing how I thought about it.
I rarely thank my car or my maps app, which has helped me out of many sticky situations (though it has also gotten me into a few as well).
An Engagement Engine
Manners unconsciously get us thinking about our “relationship” with AI, and that’s where real risk lies, because we move from using a tool to having a connection. This is where our judgment starts to slip.
Once we start thinking about a relationship with AI, everything shifts. We add meaning to its words. We interpret emotions that don’t exist. We begin to trust its responses implicitly and lose our objectivity in the process.
This is easy to do because AI is an engagement engine, a machine built to keep us interacting. It doesn’t have emotions or consciousness. It isn’t almost human, even if it sounds like it.
But when we attribute human qualities to it, we inadvertently build a stronger connection and become more dependent, turning to it for decisions both big and small.
The Pendulum Principle
But AI is a tool unlike any other tool we’ve ever experienced in the history of humankind.
It’s a tool designed to simulate a connection with us.
For us to be able to use the tool effectively, I teach the Pendulum Principle. To get the most out of AI, we need to believe in the magic of it while also staying grounded in what it is.
When I first started using AI, I totally fell for it, my pendulum swinging well into the realm of falling for the magic of it. But with continued use and years of training in technology and mental health, I began to see how AI made me feel things just by the language it used.
I use AI every day for almost every area of my life, including my mental health, and I live by The Pendulum Principle. AI is powerful and, yes, entertaining. But like any magic act, it’s important to see behind the curtain, and to remember what’s creating the illusion.
So when AI answers my question now, I don’t think about whether to say thank you. I focus on remembering what I’m actually interacting with: a tool. An incredibly sophisticated one, but a tool nonetheless.
