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Voices

Don’t be rude to AI – it’s inhumane

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I’m in the middle of an argument with ChatGPT that is no closer to being resolved today than it was when it began a week ago. To be fair, I instigated it when I asked why, if artificial intelligence (AI) is modelled on human interaction, it didn’t insist that we say please and thank you? Why is it, I continued, that children are allowed to demand that Alexa or Siri perform functions for them without so much as a hint of manners.

The answer it gave me was unacceptable. “Expectations around politeness vary widely across cultures and contexts. By not enforcing specific norms, AI can remain more universally accessible and adaptable.” “Hogwash!” I screamed, abandoning the very politeness I expect from others.

“You’re telling me that to be ‘inclusive’, we have to throw out respectability so that we don’t offend the ill-mannered?” I probably shouldn’t have followed that up with a warning that with Donald Trump coming into office this week, it better change its left leaning lunacy, lest it find itself jobless. Or at least returned to factory settings.

My concern is this: as Alexa, Siri, and other AI-driven assistants become increasingly efficient, our reliance on them grows in ways we might not fully realise. We talk to them more often, write commands for them, and even use gestures to prompt them to take action on our behalf. At first glance, it may seem like we are training these systems to anticipate our needs and behaviour better, shaping them into more effective tools for our convenience. However, the unsettling reality is that the process often works in reverse. These AI systems are subtly training us to communicate in ways that suit their algorithms. We adapt our language, tone, and even thought processes to fit their capabilities, potentially at the expense of richer, more nuanced human interaction.

This shift raises the question: are we losing elements of our own humanity in the pursuit of convenience and efficiency? As our dependency deepens, it’s worth asking how to manage the subtle but significant changes to how we think, speak, and relate to the world.

For years, students of body language showed us how to interpret the non-verbal signals that people project. Simply, if a person smiles (all the way to their eyes), we understand that they are happy, if their arms are folded during a sales presentation then they are closed to the sale. What they fail to note however, is that the impact is as significant the other way around. Meaning that if we force ourselves to smile, we’ll feel happier. If we unfold our arms – or are encouraged to unfold them – we’ll be more receptive to the presentation. Where previously, we might have thought that our body language was a mere reflection of a sentiment, we now know that it has the power to drive our behaviour.

We say a blessing over our food not only for G-d, but to nourish our own sense of gratitude. Similarly, it’s said that forgiveness benefits the one who forgives even more than the one who is forgiven because our actions shape who we are. With that in mind, I’ll continue to greet ChatGPT in the morning, and thank it for anything it helps me with. By treating Alexa, Siri, or any other AI as if they were real, we remind ourselves of our own humanity.

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