Putting the 'AI' in EMAIL

Friends,

Have you noticed artificial intelligence is trying to make us lazier? Whether LinkedIn recognizes someone thanking you and offers-up three one-click response options, or Gmail prods you to follow-up on an email you sent five days ago, AI wants to help. The results can be hilarious. Try typing-in the first two to three words of a sentence and then complete it by using only “next word autocomplete”. For instance, if I had any idea what I was going to say to the other two people that were doing great things... You get the idea (the words “for instance” in the preceding were my sentence kindling, the rest was all AI). The problem with not knowing where your sentence is going is knowing when it has arrived.

While we don’t yet have complex AI-generated (AI-ded?) exchanges, the trend has made me question platitudes. Lately I’ve been making an effort to be more thoughtful in my responses. The way I see it, if Google can predict my sentence or Facebook can suggest my comment, I’m just being lazy. I realize it may be a symptom of old age (geezers tend to resist, even fear, change), so I try not to get paranoid. Speaking of being lazy, Labor Day is upon us. You don’t need AI to embrace your inner sloth, just grab yourself a dozen donuts and get horizontal (it’s not pronounced LAY BORE DAY for nothing).
Happy Friday!

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