How do you feel when someone, especially someone you’ve only met once or a few times, remembers something which is important to you? It can be as simple as your name, your travel plans, your family, or something you talked about. It feels good, doesn’t it? A little thing like that can really make you like someone or change any negative preconceptions you may have had.
I would argue that most people who are considered charming have mastered this art, it really makes them stand out. It’s not a complex skill, it’s essentially a good listening skill combined with some memory training and yet so few people are good at it despite it’s potential.
The problem is that AI assistants are about to change the game, forever. For good or for bad, AI will only get exponentially better (it already has – look at the AI image and video generation, chatgpt’s impressive responses to tough questions, and how it was a year and a half ago when the hype first started and it is definitely something wild). With this much power, comes great responsibility – the responsibility of authenticity.
Within a few years, no one will be impressed that you remembered their name. No one will be impressed that you remembered their whole family’s names, hobbies and where they all travelled last week or 7 years ago. If you told them, it was recorded and summarised by an AI assistant.
Quick wit, puns, and inside jokes based on your humour? Is it real or did an AI tell them? That funny message – was it them or the AI that analysed the chat? The video about the politician making a blunder – was it real, a deepfake or AI generated? Trusting anything online will become more difficult. But at least we will have real life. For now, AI is not fast enough to keep up with situations as they happen. You can’t ask AI to think of the perfect thing to say mid-conversation. But how long until it is fast enough? How long until AI is a small implant connected to super powerful servers that can predict where the conversation is going, and the best things to say, based on a profile build up on a person?
This may seem like an episode of Black Mirror, but whether we like it or not, the technology to do that is probably already feasible, just not yet for the full public.
Right now, if you asked many people what they think of such technology, they will tell you they don’t like it and they are somewhat scared of it. However, once a few people start using it, the advantages over those that don’t will become too obvious, and you will have a choice – use it as well or get left behind.
The one thing that AI will struggle with for a very long time still is authenticity. AI is trained on existing data and while it could mimic authenticity, it will never come out right when a person says it because an AI told them to. It’s like reading a response to a person, even if said in real time, you would feel that it didn’t come from them.
When the world does get crazy with AI assistants (just look at AI pin and OMI AI necklace), then the thing we will value the most is not what is said but how it is said. The perfectly imperfec things about people.
There is also a potential that higher levels of autism will grow exponentially. If people overuse AI assistants to communicate with people – in person or digital, it will not develop the brain parts that pick up on the subtle signs of communication and why we react the way we do. In a way, AI will make us more productive, but it will do so by making us more robotic.
There is a chance that humans reject AI to some extent. If the majority of people put peer pressure against the use of AI assistants, then AI could be kept mostly digital, highly regulated and frowned upon when used for anything other than checking our grammar and maybe generating some funny images and videos. But I don’t see this happening. The power of AI will be too big to ignore. I still remember when I was about 12 saying I didn’t like smart phones and that touch screen is just a fad that will die out because buttons are more responsive. Now it’s rare to find a person that doesn’t have a smartphone. The same will happen with AI.
I do believe that some anti digital and AI detox communities will form, but it will be similar to how we look at Amish communities.
The way to succeed in the new AI world will be to continue practising core communication skills authentically, while using AI to improve any shortcomings quicker.
