I used to think AI was creepy, but these Google AI features are just sad
Google AI will help you “be more productive” by writing thank-you notes, Google’s VP of devices and services, Rick Osterloh, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern ($/£). Osterloh says putting down the pen and switching to digital thank-yous helped him write “10 times more emails than handwritten thank-you notes.” In the future, AI will help us write exponentially more thank you notes in even less time.
Don’t you feel sad? The problem is the impersonal nature of such a function. Google’s AI can do the things a human can do, but it’s not the things themselves that matter – it does them.
Like many people, I hate writing thank you notes. I love receiving gifts, and I love gratitude, but writing thank-you notes turns an occasion into a tedious chore. Nevertheless, I write the notes on special occasions, because I have also received letters of thanks, and I know how good it feels.
Receiving a thank-you note is the ideal gift-giving outcome, aside from the joy of giving, of course. When I receive a handwritten thank you, I don’t see words on paper. I see the time it took to write them. I see the difficulty of finding special stationery, digging stamps out of the junk drawer and placing the letter in a real mailbox.
Writing 100 thank you notes after my wedding was tedious work – thinking of something unique and personal to say to everyone. But these are not strangers. They are friends and cousins and colleagues and loved ones. You know: people, relationships, that kind of human thing.
When I get a thank you card after someone else’s wedding and it’s two free lines of writing that barely acknowledge our connection—life proof for a gift—I’m still honored and tickled. I know the effort it takes, and I appreciate it when it’s taken for me.
Being human is an experience, not an outcome
How many times will we have the same conversation, Google? Stop taking the humanity out of my human life. I don’t want an AI that writes thank you cards because there is no humanity in it. I don’t want an AI that creates fake memories in the form of photos. I feel sad when people promote these AI benefits.
I have the same problem with Google’s latest camera trick. The new Add Me camera feature on the Pixel 9 worked very well in my hands-on time, and it solves a real problem. If you are hanging out with a group of people and you want to take a group photo, the photographer will be left out of the picture. Add Me can add you to group photos with AI.
As a human being, I often ask other people to take a picture of me and my group, and I have never met another human who refused. Fortunately, Google has solved this problem.
@techradar ♬ Storytelling – Adriel
When it’s done, you’ll have an Add Me photo. There you stand next to the group. Now imagine how it will feel to look at that picture in five years, or 10 years, or so far in the future that you won’t be able to remember everyone’s name. I promise, you’ll get there sooner than you want.
A real group photo makes you feel a real connection with people. I remember when a group of us took a picture at the Dorney Park amusement park in Pennsylvania. I remember standing in the back, because I’m tall, and putting my arms around the shorter people in front of me. I wish I had taken my hat off because you can’t see my face, but I was there.
I remember I was there, and that’s important. In fact, that’s the only important thing.
Even if I have forgotten the names of the people in the photo, I will still have a feeling about them. If I use Google’s Add Me, what will I feel? The time I stood by myself while my friend used a Google Pixel 9 to add me? I won’t remember what it felt like to stand in the back, with my arms around people, that’s for sure, because I’ll be alone.
Here’s a picture of me and a celebrity I haven’t met
Google’s own example for Add Me is even worse. You can take a photo of your friend with a celebrity, Google suggests, and add yourself later. On stage at the Made By Google event, Google used Add Me with Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler. One presenter stood next to Jimmy Buckets, while the other took a photo. Then the photographer used Add Me to add himself to the photo.
We all know how this feature will actually be used. I see Chris Rock crossing the street in Manhattan and I’m going to take a picture with Add Me. Then I’ll add myself to the picture so it looks like Chris Rock and I crossed the street together.
Sorry Chris Rock, I’m only using you as an example because I actually saw you crossing the street once, and I did NOT take a picture and try to add myself later. That would have been a shame. And what would I say if I showed people that picture?
“Here’s me and Chris Rock!”
“Oh, did you meet Chris Rock?”
“No, but I took a picture and then added myself later with Google’s Add Me!” To look?
Sad.
I used to call these AI features creepy, but now I’ve realized they make me sad more than anything.
After I send 100 thank-you emails, written entirely by Gemini AI, will I feel satisfied? Will I feel like I thanked someone?
Then, what happens the next time I get a thank you… (ugh) a thank you email? Will it have the same impact? If I think it was written by AI, could it have any impact at all?
An AI can write a note, but it won’t be a thank you. Google’s AI can add you to a group photo, but it won’t make you feel like part of the group. These AI tools will not do what their creators claim they will do, because they claim to help us with our human needs, but – and I will say it again – there is no humanity in AI.
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#creepy #Google #features #sad
