On people writing about their use of AI – Manu

On people writing about their use of AI<br>I find the trend of people posting about the way they use generative AI to be fascinating at an anthropological level. I do not remember the last time a piece of technology pushed so many different people into writing about the way they use it, or not use it, or abuse it, or misuse it. To me, this is way more interesting and intriguing than the technology itself.

I obviously do not know why so many people are doing so, and I suspect they must all have their own specific reasons, but I currently have three main theories but I’m sure there are more than that.

The first theory is that a good percentage is trying to capitalize on the trend in an attempt to become some sort of AI thought leader. Those people are insufferable. They usually hang out on LinkedIn, but sometimes they escape containment, and they remember that they do have a blog (and that’s often a Substack, unsurprisingly) where they can post these generic-looking blog posts filled with lists and it’s-not-this-it's-that statements.

The second theory is that techies are gonna tech. A lot of the people who have blogs are also into tech, and gen AI is an interesting piece of tech and so it’s natural that those people will end up writing about how they use AI.

The third and final theory is that there’s a group of people who feel the need to distance themselves from what AI represents. So those posts are not really about the technology itself, but rather a statement on the state of the world around them, and they want to make it clear if and how they participate in it.

This final group is to me the interesting one. Now, if you’re a techie, don’t be mad at me, I’m not saying you’re not interesting, because you are (if instead you’re an AI bro, click here. You're welcome.) I’m saying the last group is the interesting one because to me, it’s fascinating how people feel compelled to justify or explain to strangers on the Internet how they interact with a piece of technology. And it’s especially fascinating because it’s a completely pointless exercise in my opinion.

Let’s pretend you just landed on my blog for the first time (hi, welcome, nice to have you here) and you have no idea who I am. For all you know, I might not even be a real person. This entire website could be a psyop run by the Italian government. With that in mind, what’s the value of a post in which I tell you how I use or not use AI from a moral perspective? Would it make a difference if I were to tell you that I don’t use it? Or that I use it maybe once a day to answer a coding-related question? What if I told you that I don’t use AI at all, but in reality, this post was entirely generated by a swarm of AI agents while I was outside walking the dog, enjoying life? Unless you have prior knowledge of me and this blog, a post like that, in a vacuum, would be meaningless.

How about the opposite case, though? Let's now pretend you weren’t new here, and you had, in fact, been following this blog since 2017. If that was the case, you wouldn't even need me to write that blog post, because by this point, you’d have all the necessary information to make an informed judgment. And you’d also know that you could ping me via email or via DM and ask me directly if you had any doubt about anything related to this topic.

In both cases, a post stating my use of AI would have pretty much zero value. Which genuinely makes me wonder why so many people feel compelled to write about this stuff. If you wrote one of these posts, can I ask you why? Why do you feel the need to explain how you use this technology? Is there a specific reason? I’d love to know.

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