'You sound like ChatGPT'
You sound like ChatGPT by Sara Parker at The Verge talks about how AI is affecting vocab usage and revealing an erosion of trust. A couple interesting points (emphasis mine):
This paradox — AI improving communication while fostering suspicion — points to a deeper loss of trust, according to Mor Naaman, professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech. He has identified three levels of human signals that we’ve lost in adopting AI into our communication. The first level is that of basic humanity signals, cues that speak to our authenticity as a human being like moments of vulnerability or personal rituals, which say to others, “This is me, I’m human.” The second level consists of attention and effort signals that prove “I cared enough to write this myself.” And the third level is ability signals which show our sense of humor, our competence, and our real selves to others. It’s the difference between texting someone, “I’m sorry you’re upset” versus “Hey sorry I freaked at dinner, I probably shouldn’t have skipped therapy this week.” One sounds flat; the other sounds human.
And:
Without these signals, Naaman warns, we’ll only trust face-to-face communication — not even video calls.
AI is accelerating patterns that already existed. It's strengthening a desire for privacy and authenticity that social media fostered. It's homogenizing dialects much like internet culture has done. What's happening now is part of a larger trend.
AI is here to stay, so we need to be conscientious about how we use it. And we need to carve out rituals and times and places that technology doesn't infringe on.
My phone has most notifications silenced most of the time. Calls go to voicemail and I call back when convenient. When I'm with friends I make an effort to not pull out the phone, or to put it far away from me. I think we can all benefit from more in-person interactions—individually and societally.