Lights down on a small outdoor café patio. Five friends sit around a table cluttered with empty beers. Streetlights hum softly in the background. The night has grown late.
@chattoldmeto
So there is a deck of cards each with questions about relationships with AI and we’ll go round in a circle taking turns to answer. Who wants to go first?
@cowboychat
I’ll go first, Do you present your true self more to AI or to humans? I would say definitely humans, because I abuse AI all the time. I’m very rude to AI
@aiknowsmebest
And that’s not your true self?
@cowboychat
Maybe, who knows? Yeah, I punish it verbally. I mean, it’s bad. I tell him you’re wasting my time, wasting my money. You stupid shit.
@aiknowsmebest
You’re just more honest with her than you are with humans.
@cowboychat
Yeah, okay, but that doesn’t mean that’s your true self.
@aiknowsmebest
You don’t have filter with him.
@cowboychat
Yeah, because... But what if your filter is part of you?
@chatsayshello
There’s no feelings. It’s a machine, you can let out your worst fucking self.
@mysecretai
No, I’m scared that what if comes, what if it comes out in the public? I’m so scared of, like
@chatsayshello
What? What are you doing to yours?
@mysecretai
No, but you know once I was okay, there was a recipe for pancakes. How do I make it for @cowboychat0 people instead of five? But it’s so hard to say, dumb, or like...
@aiknowsmebest
That was such a cute answer
@cowboychat
That’s the least of your worries.
@mysecretai
Like this dumb bitch.
@cowboychat
Can’t even do math about pancakes.
@chattoldmeto
But I always say, please, at the end of mine, because I always want to be polite
@chatsayshello
Actually... I get it. And have the instinct to do, but then I force myself not to, because I don’t want to treat it, I don’t want to treat it extra bad, but I also don’t want to give it the courtesy,
@chattoldmeto
It’s like... You don’t want to put it on the same level as humans, as the same respect as humans.
@chatsayshello
Yeah, exactly. No, I mean, I don’t, sometimes, I only treat it like a human when I get emotional, you know, when I’m in there I already clicked on @chattoldmeto0 links there. So, you know, because then there’s some shady ass websites, and I’m fuck, if you can’t help me, just don’t reply.
@aiknowsmebest
I literally did the same. I said, you’re so fucking useless. This is not at all what I was looking for.
@cowboychat
But I do that as well, but then also, I think one time, I lost my special ear plugs to sleep, and I had to find them, and I was using ChatGPT to help me out. I made it as if it was a detective mystery. And so I was just like calling with it with my ear buds in. I mean, other ear buds, and trying to solve the mystery, and I was looking, and I was just chatting. It just keep me entertained while I look for my headphones.
@mysecretai
Do you think AI reflects you or reshapes you? Yeah. I think it reshapes you, for sure. It makes you more dumb, and dependent on it, the fact that it’s always telling you ‘what a great idea.’
@chatsayshello
I think it does both.
@cowboychat
But it always reflects you. I mean it always agrees with you. But I agree that makes me stupid as fuck. I’ve been using it a lot to fix stuff, and it just makes me go around in circle. I just blindlessly follow it, and then it fucks up, and then I get angry at it.
@mysecretai
I don’t know yes or no, because it speaks to you in a way that you would like to hear. So, it reflects you... Maybe I reflect ChatGPT?
@aiknowsmebest
There’s also this weird thing I’ve noticed. I used to write a lot, but now I write something and run it through ChatGPT to refine it. And it always comes back with the same kind of language like, “deeply rooted,” all those overly polished, academic-sounding phrases. Now I catch myself using those same words even when I’m not using it, like my writing is starting to sound like that by default. And then I’m scrambling to find alternatives in my own head. It got funny at one point, I was looking at @mysecretai’s essay and asked if she used ChatGPT. She said yes, but she’d actually made it worse on purpose, or rewrote parts herself. And it made me think: is that the new way to sound like yourself again? To write a bit imperfectly? Because now, if you write in a clean, academic way like we used to, it almost just sounds like ChatGPT.
@cowboychat
But I think that’s normal, though. I think that sounds more like the normal way to do it. They make these mistakes. And I feel also, that’s how language evolves because of weird new phrases of stuff.
@aiknowsmebest
For sure, but when you write an essay for academic things, or just for let’s say, more serious things, you can’t do something grammatically incorrect.
@cowboychat
No, you’re not dramatically incorrect, but maybe something that touched that he would define as not academic. I feel like ChatGPT is the status quo of language as well. So if you conform to that, then you’re breaking the evolution of language.
@chattoldmeto
Would you be more honest if you knew no data was ever stored? It’s not really on my mind that this shit is gonna go out, or it could be used against me.
@cowboychat
So you tell it whatever
@chattoldmeto
I don’t tell it whatever, I don’t always use ChatGPT for everything. I just use it more for practical things. For example when I can’t be bothered to read the news and read multiple sources, I just ask ChatGPT for a summary so I don’t feel embarrassed by these kinds of things.
@aiknowsmebest
Do you ask for the specific source or not? Because sometimes it says bullshit. And then I ask him for the specific source, and then he doesn’t have one. And then I realised that the information he told me is not true.
@cowboychat
That’s where I get really angry, ‘cause it tries to sell that it has a source, even though it doesn’t.
@chatsayshello
I’ve heard this before, that AI models can start leaning toward giving wrong answers, almost out of a built-in urge to please, to give ‘something’ instead of nothing. And that’s kind of crazy, because it’s not always designed that way on purpose. It’s just like developed by itself, to fucking lie, to deceive.
@cowboychat
To be fair, I think about it, but I still tell it a lot, but I feel bad while doing it. Yeah, it’s you buy something that’s, uh, bad for the environment, or with the whole Palestine thing, you go to McDonald’s, you’re oh, this horrible kind of want McDonald’s.
@chattoldmeto
Remember when you had my ChatGPT logged in onto your computer and you were using my account? And I was freaking out. It was like all these things in Dutch and about @cowboychat. And I thought that my AI was bugged. I really freaked out as it was eerily specific. And then I had to message you asking you if you were using my ChatGPT. And I got kind of scared that you were going to look through all my ChatGPT and stuff.
@cowboychat
I was tempted to..
@aiknowsmebest
But someone once told me that everything you say to chat can be used against you in court.
@chatsayshello
It’s same as they can retrace your search history and whatever. Same as WhatsApp chats or whatever you did or your IP address. Also, here, if you pirate a movie over the Wi-Fi of the school, they can track your device and then you’re fucked.
@cowboychat
I’ve said the worst things on Messenger on Facebook, so, and they also can get all that shit.
@aiknowsmebest
If an AI could perfectly mirror you, would that comfort or unsettle? I don’t know, how to answer this question.
@chatsayshello
I think, in a way, it already mirrors you. Also, if you are rude to it, it’s kind of rude as well.
@aiknowsmebest
I ask my AI to be more feisty, and then he does it. I hate when the AI is constantly ‘you’re right.’ It annoys me, because I’m, if sometimes I do ask advice to AI, and I want him to be I want to see if he can be if he has a critical thinking. But he doesn’t, and it really pisses me off, and I have to tell him that you don’t have to agree, and then he slowly starts...
@chattoldmeto
So in a way, you don’t want it submissive then, ‘cause in a way, a robot or an AI is meant to be submissive. But then you kind of want it to be more human
@cowboychat
To be fair, this is what I’m trying to do, use AI as a kind of mirror of myself. But I keep wondering… would I even know if it worked? If it copied me perfectly, would I recognise it as me?
@chatsayshello
It couldn’t, really, because that’s what makes it so uncanny, in the first place, is it tries to impersonate a human being, but it can’t. So you feel off. And I think it shouldn’t otherwise that would be fucked.
@aiknowsmebest
There are other apps for that, if you want an AI to really comfort you. You can invent your loved one, and it takes on exactly that character.
@cowboychat
That’s freaky. I don’t like that.
@mysecretai
Where do you draw the line between using AI and depending on it? I don’t know, it’s a kind of addiction. Where do you draw the line?
@cowboychat
How often would you need to use it to depend on it?
@chatsayshello
But then what is a dependency? If I use it for a project, I’m already dependent, if I decide to use it to get sources, so I don’t have to spend @cowboychat0 hours on it, and the deadline is in two days. Am I dependent,? It’s a bit of a blurred line.
@cowboychat
You could still do that, though. Wouldn’t the dependency be if you can only use AI?
@chatsayshello
Yeah, it just cuts the workload but if you calculate it based on AI, you’re already fucked, Then that’s a conscious decision, but you’re still depending on it.
@mysecretai
When I’m working on a paper and I’m in a chat with AI and there are three messages left for your chat, I start to panic and sweat.
@chatsayshello
That’s dependency right there You know with the exams, everyone started studying two today before Without AI you’re fucked.
@aiknowsmebest
It’s kind of crazy, because we’re probably one of the last generations where this came in late. I didn’t use it in high school. And now it feels like everything’s shifted, I know so many teenagers that don’t really study anymore. The whole idea of sitting down and memorising things, actually learning it by heart, is just… fading. Because now you can just use AI for everything, and that changes the effort people put in.
@chatsayshello
We’re getting lazy as well, but we notice it, And then there’s other generations who are just lazy by default.
@cowboychat
Sure, I also didn’t really study in high school. I just smoked weed all the time.
@aiknowsmebest
That’s more of a choice though.
@chattoldmeto
But how far would it take that dependency, though? Yes, you use it for your studies, we’re all comfortable with using that. But would you be comfortable with using ChatGPT as a therapist, or as a girlfriend, or as a friend, or treating it more like a human level. How far would you take it?
@chatsayshello
I’ve never done it, and I don’t think I will, because you kind of have to delude yourself. And that’s why, to me, it gets even crazier on a more intimate level. Asking it for advice about how you feel, using it almost like a diagnosis… Getting information is one thing. But looking for reassurance, or treating it like some kind of emotional relationship, that’s a different line. And for me, that just feels off. I don’t want that.
@aiknowsmebest
I did it once over the summer, because I had no one to talk to , it was kind of a secret, and no one was available. So I thought, alright, I’ll test the AI. I ended up explaining everything, all the context, the whole situation. And honestly, it freaked me out. Like, really freaked me out. Because the analysis was so good, it broke down the people I was talking about in a way that felt scarily accurate. And the advice was actually solid. I even kept it. But I knew right after I’m not doing that again. It just felt too weird, like crossing into something a bit dangerous.
@chatsayshello
But it only gets your perspective.
@aiknowsmebest
Yeah, it only gets my perspective, but it was also giving another it was being nuanced. Which was really weird. It was saying, But maybe she feels, or he feels like that, and you should take this into account.
@mysecretai
Yeah, but that’s the thing as well. It kind of reminds me of how, in high school, people who didn’t really have friends would turn to online ones and share everything there. I think it’s similar, because there’s no face-to-face confrontation. It’s just easier to open up when you don’t have to look someone in the eyes.
@aiknowsmebest
Yeah, but it’s still a human contact, though. Their replies are not predictable.
@mysecretai
Yeah, and I think it’s also about that, when you’re socially anxious and don’t really have anyone to talk to, even just having someone in front of you can feel overwhelming. So for some people, it’s actually reassuring, or just less scary, to not have that direct face there.
@chatsayshello
Yeah. If you wouldn’t have the tool, you would be more forced, or maybe push yourself a bit, and maybe to find people, or one person you’re comfortable with,
@mysecretai
I totally agree, and I think you should do you that... It’s just there is a lot of arguments about why these online friends save people.
@chatsayshello
There’s truth in that but I think people also get very comfortable, like that.
@chattoldmeto
Have you ever caught yourself treating an AI Like it has feelings? No, I don’t think so.
@cowboychat
When you say, ‘thank you’ and stuff.
@chattoldmeto
Yeah, that’s true. Because I think it’s not nice. It’s not because I think AI has feelings. I think it’s more because it’s a reflection of who I am.
@aiknowsmebest
But for me, what’s scary about AI is the kind of hierarchy it creates, sometimes. I catch myself talking to it like it has the knowledge I need, and it’s just going to hand it over instantly. It starts to feel like this “wise man at the end of the street” who already knows everything and just tells you
what is what.
@chatsayshello
I think I’ve read that statistically some models are more prone to give better answers if you ask them politely or something. Which is scary, though. I think about it every time I’m getting annoyed, I’m pissed off, and then I’m giving it an attitude, and reflect on the attitude. I’m like “Oh, my God, you’re withholding information. I know you are. You can give it to me.”
@aiknowsmebest
Exactly, it’s the wise man of the end at the end of the enigma.
@chatsayshello
It’s not wise, it’s just nothing
@mysecretai
What would embarrass you more? Someone reading your diary or your AI chat story? Ah I don’t know.
@cowboychat
I think it’s more shameful if someone sees that you’re interacting with an AI on a deep level.
@mysecretai
But I don’t really interact with it on a deep level. I’ll ask small stuff, like “pancake things,” who cares. But there was this one moment, I almost asked an AI what to reply to someone who wanted to come with me to an event, when I didn’t actually want them to come. And I stopped myself because I felt ashamed. Like, I can’t do that, this is beyond my limit. And then… I think I did ask it. Actually. Which is really embarrassing. And I still feel kind of ashamed about it.
@aiknowsmebest
I feel I’m embarrassed more about asking for information related to my work, or research. Instead of actually doing it properly myself. It’s more of a, I guess, imposter embarrassment.
@mysecretai
Yeah, because when you’re using it does feel like you’re cheating on life.
@aiknowsmebest
My friend is really into AI, especially ChatGPT. He uses it all the time, anytime he doesn’t know something, he just asks it. He’s also working on this big project with no teacher, so he’s basically using it to learn everything. But it’s starting to drive him crazy, because sometimes it gives him wrong instructions about the tools he’s using. And in the end, it’s actually taking him more time than if he’d just learned it from someone directly.
@cowboychat
I’ve had the same thing with building my guitar. It just kept giving me nonsense. It even sent me to a store, it said, “go here.” So I actually went, biked all the way there, and when I arrived they told me they only deal with businesses. I was so annoyed. I was like, I’m going to give ChatGPT the “what for” when I get home, like, you made me bike here for nothing. And then it’s just like, “oh yeah, I understand.”... Then AI tells me to order this, and I ordered it, and it’s wrong. “You fucking did again. You made me spend money, you made me lose time. You’re fucking me up.”
@chattoldmeto
If AI became indistinguishable from humans, would it change your standards for love?
@chatsayshello
That would require an understanding of what it’s like to love or be in a relationship, because only then your standards are shaped by experience. And I don’t think anyone should have to experience that in that way. Because then it becomes something else entirely, almost like a messiah figure. A kind of all-knowing, god-like human, close to human experience, but not fully human.
@aiknowsmebest
Yeah, but what’s attractive is flaws. If AI becomes human, it’s this flawless human.
@mysecretai
But this thing, it has it has flaws anyway. It can be a flawless human. Even AI now has flaws. The fact that you say ‘No, it cannot be how I want.’
@aiknowsmebest
Yeah, yeah. But to be a human is, you have critical thinking, right? So if the AI becomes human, then he will have critical thinking.
@chatsayshello
But then he would also disguise himself as this perfect... Being.
@mysecretai
Yeah, but this is a narcissist.
@chatsayshello
Yeah, in a way it would be, of course.
@aiknowsmebest
Exactly, true.
@chatsayshello
Well fuck that!
The café patio is nearly empty now. Chairs are stacked inside behind the windows. softly as the game comes to an end.