The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence Etiquette

Since its release in November 2022, ChatGPT has become the most popular Large Language Model (LLM) specifically designed for human conversation, achieving mass consumer adoption. We have since witnessed a surge of such LLMs, spreading across the internet like a wildfire, be it Google's Gemini, Claude, X's Grok, to name a few. Several companies have since gone on to create their own AI and integrate it within their own platforms.

This article will not be another A.I. bash article, as much as I would love for it to be. Instead, and to save you the precious time, this will be a human bash to all of those who use A.I. blindly for the sake of making their lives easier.

Personally, I use A.I. in my everyday life. I use it to filter emails, to automatically schedule my assignments in my gCal straight from my emails and texts. I use it to summarise my friends' group chat after disappearing for a day, so I'd catch up on all the latest gossip (or tea, or juice or whichever liquid we've assigned gossiping to now). I use A.I. to filter through the boatload of documents clients send over at the last minute to help me generate a glossary and quick cheat sheet to use for my interpretation. All of this to say that I am not trying to be hypocritical and am upfront: I use artificial intelligence, and I use it a lot.

However, one hill I will forever stand, die on, and be buried in is that I have never let A.I. take over my voice.

The Epidemic of Social Media Posts and the Art of Not Thinking Anymore

Back in the good old prior A.I. days, ghostwriting carried a sort of stigma of deception. When an author or public figure presents their "genius" work as their own, and builds their brand upon it, only for their readers to find out that a ghostwriter was used in the process, they often end up feeling disappointed, deceived, and criticize the author for lack of authenticity.

I say we should bring this stigma back 10x stronger to fight the epidemic of social media posts. If anything, we should shame content creators, public figures, and any living and breathing soul with a platform whenever they use generative A.I. I also firmly believe that academics should be either fined or stripped of their degrees for using A.I. in their published works.

If you're wondering what I am talking about, I kindly invite you to switch tabs (do not close my article just yet!) and open Instagram or LinkedIn—I unfortunately do not spend as much time on TikTok, so I cannot guide you there.

5 out of 6 reels have similar captions.

Not in words.

Not in content.

Nor in context,

But in style...

It is almost automatic, when you start reading the captions that once used to flow with emotions or stupid jokes, to notice they now all share

the same structure.

the same tune.

the same beat.

the same god-forsaken conclusion that nobody could ever come up with!

And the worst part about it is?

I am still writing using that format, and you are most likely cringing still... and if you're not, you should be.

The difference between this structure and the one you often see is that I wrote this one myself... unfortunate, I know. (I did not know I had it in me either...)

LinkedIn posts, on the other hand, are worse. I could not for the life of me replicate a post, but here's what you would usually find: an exclamatory sentence, celebrating some event or achievement, then cue an unnecessary load of information, even more unverified information, misplaced em dashes, random em dashes, some more em dashes, exclamation point, exclamation point, bullet points, bullet points, question marks, hashtags.

Wasn't that exhausting to read? It was even more exhausting to write.

The Solution for Artificial Intelligence is Simpler Than You Think

I will not be as bold as to suggest you stop using A.I. altogether, because 1. it will make my life harder than it already is chasing a toddler while building my business, and 2. I am just lazy like that.

However, I will voluntarily share with you what I believe must be coined as the Handbook of A.I. Usage, free of charge and available for all!

The Handbook

Do not let it suck up your soul!

In other words, and I cannot believe I am writing this: let's bring back self-help books instead of venting to ChatGPT about some problem we had... and if you can afford it: therapy! While a book presents ideas you don't normally agree with, you're still exploring new ways of thinking. A therapist often pushes back and asks questions that send you spiralling down your mind until you come floating back up with a solution. A chatbot just agrees, and agreement on repeat is how you stop noticing that you might actually be the problem.

Do not let it become your ghostwriter.

If your caption, your comment, your wedding speech needed a machine to sound like you, it was never you speaking. Write it badly first. Badly is still yours. Or better yet: hire a ghostwriter, a content writer, a transcreator, hire a human being who has spent decades studying and doing what they do before A.I. came to be. At least they are human and know how to sound human.

Do not let it think for you.

There is a difference between asking A.I. to help you structure an argument and asking A.I. to argue for you. While there's absolutely nothing wrong with uploading your email for an A.I. to correct, make sure to give it the right command to keep your voice, tone, and style. Here's an example out of the goodness of my heart:

"Correct the language and grammar of my text,

ensuring coherence and cohesion, without impacting,

changing or affecting my style, language or content in the slightest"

Do disclose it.

If a machine wrote it or shaped it beyond a grammar pass, say so. Tell people where you got your information from; maybe then you will learn something new, or the people around you will learn how to use the tool as you do. The goal is to exchange, discuss, learn and debate, not to see who sounds smarter than whom. And for content creators and Instagram influencers: some things are not meant to be optimized for engagement. Some things are meant to be a mess on a page, unpolished and slightly unhinged, because that is what being human looks like.

Use it like a tool, not a personality.

Just like for the longest, Google has been a search engine that we use to find information, let us use A.I. as a tool to bring us closer to our targets and help us come up with a better outline for our projects or simply suggest what to make for dinner, not have it come in the room and cook for you—although I would not mind that.... never mind, scratch that last thought.

The Conclusion

Congratulations on your intact attention span; you are one of the few. I am aware I have not shared anything in a while; however, one particular text message on Instagram triggered me. I then went on to doom scroll inside the same app, and was dumbfounded by the number of soulless, zombie-like, boring and cringeworthy captions. So here I am, and here you are.

Let's bring back shaming people for plagiarising work or for taking credit for something they did not do. You might not be aware of the severity of A.I. and how it is making our society collectively stupid, but I assure you that it is. Artificial intelligence should be exactly what the name entails: artificial.

You, my dear reader, hold the brain; you carry it within you wherever you go. Don't try to keep it unused and shiny. Use it, soil it, fill it with information that took work to confirm, watch the boring three-hour-long podcasts, read the books, sit with old people again and listen to them patiently tell you a ten-minute story in five hours. Life is not going anywhere, and the speed at which A.I. is advancing is not exciting; it's horrifyingly morbid! Don't try to catch up to it; use it to your advantage, without allowing it to strip you of your identity.

And for the love of all that's nice, please stop generating A.I. images to fit your LinkedIn narrative... please. Sincerely, A desperate citizen of the world.