The Prompt

A not-quite-fictional response to an AI-empowered Narcissist

My poor sad robot, so ashamed of what AI has become. (Hand drawn pencil sketch, digitally colorized)

This one is a little different from my usual style and content. Or maybe it isn’t? I’m not even sure. Essentially, I’ve been living with and thinking about how disturbing it is when AI is used to validate and empower manipulative people. It gives them softer language to shield abuses, and another outlet through which to pass the blame. This is a not-quite-fictional response to an AI-assisted guilt trip. It is a quick read, but there will be snark.

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Subject: Re: Thinking of you [Insert Meaningless Sentiment Here]

Dearest Motherboard,

You fed your version of history into a text box and distilled decades of biological nightmare into a blinking cursor. You asked a machine to find the right words to tell me I don’t love you enough.

It gave you poorly placed em dashes— bolded accusations dressed up in the political stance that they were not— and a 98.6% probability that you are the martyr of this story.

It is the perfect bond, really. You, the perpetual victim. The Bot, the yes-man in a machine. With its help, you have automated your responsibility and outsourced the heavy lifting of a conscience to a server that will never tell you that you are wrong.

I am the only one left with a memory that hasn’t been scrubbed by an algorithm. I am the glitch in your narrative. The bug that keeps disrupting your manufactured closeness.

You don’t want connection. You want a magic mirror that tells you how you were the fairest of them all. That you did your best. Everyone else is the problem.

So, keep the chatbot. Tell it your secrets. Let it validate your “amends” until your hands are sore. Enclosed you will find the shame. It is far too heavy for my pathetic mortal hands, but I’m sure your new friend can teach you how to store it.

Kindly, unsubscribe and remove me from the list.

With many regrets (though they are mostly yours),

A human ❤️

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Happy to get that out of my brain. Thanks for being here.

Until next time,

j