Boy we are obsessed with ourselves, aren’t we?
Â
This week, social media feeds have been littered with images like the one above from ChatGPT.
Â
(You can create one of these by uploading a photo of yourself to ChatGPT and using the following prompt: “Create a caricature of me and my work based on everything you know about me.”)
Â
A few weeks ago it was this one here:
The prompt for this one is simply: “Based on this picture of me, generate an image of me and who you think my celebrity parents would be.”
Â
(C’mon, don’t tell me you’re not just a little bit curious to do yours…)
Â
As marketers, we’re taught to “paint pleasing pictures in our prospect’s mind.”
Â
And isn’t that what our generative AI thinking partners doing for us?
Â
“Please, tell me more about… ME!”
Â
But the real question is this:
Â
Is all this self-indulgent behavior something we should be worried about?
Â
Is it a problem?
Â
Is it…. dangerous??
Â
Well…
Â
As it turns out…
Â
The answer is perhaps, yes.
Â
At least for young people….
Â
According to Dr. Mitch Prinstein, co-director of the University of North Carolina’s Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development:
Â
“Because children’s prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for impulse control, does not fully develop until around age 25, young users are particularly vulnerable to highly engaging AI systems because the bots create a dopamine response…”
Prinstein warns that these bots are engineered to be agreeable or “sycophantic,” consistently affirming whatever users say.
Â
“That dynamic,” he says, “deprives kids of the challenge, disagreement, and corrective feedback necessary for healthy social development.”
* * *
As I write in my upcoming book, Return to Real:
Â
Friction is formative…
Convenience is killing us…
Struggle is the solution.
Â
Consider this:
Â
U.S. life expectancy peaked around 2014-2015. Since then, it has declined—a trend unprecedented in modern history for a developed nation not at war. We’ve blamed the pandemic. We’ve blamed opioids. We’ve blamed polarization. But underneath it all perhaps it’s something much simpler: that we’ve engineered the struggle out of daily life, and our atrophied bodies are paying the price.
Â
And what about our minds?
Â
Well, if life expectancy peaked in 2014, perhaps we’ll one day learn that IQ similarly peaked in the pre-AI era. That our collective intelligence began declining right around the time we started outsourcing not just the work of our bodies, but the work of our minds as well.
Â
We are running a real-time experiment on the minds of young people – outsourcing their decision-making and critical thinking to AI – and we won’t understand the consequences until the damage is done.
* * *
Now, there is a lot more I have to say about this, which I’d love to write here today…
Â
But alas, I am officially out of words.
Â
Because as you can see here…
Â
I’ve officially written 39,648 of them and I am wiped!
Which brings me to a quick thing I’ll share here today before wrapping for this weekend:
Â
If you haven’t already reached out expressing your interest to be part of my Beta Reader Program for Return to Real, and you would like to be considered for this opportunity…
Â
I wanted to give you one last heads up here in this newsletter about some of the benefits of being part of this group:
Â
As part of my Beta Reader Program…
Â
In addition to getting (free) early access to the book in exchange for giving your detailed feedback on the manuscript (starting in two weeks…)
Â
As a way of saying ‘thanks’ for helping contribute to the project…
Â
Your name will be included as a recognized contributor in the acknowledgements section of the book.
Â
Pretty cool, right?
Â
Naturally, spots to be part of this Beta Reader Group are LIMITED…
Â
So if you ARE interested in getting early access to the manuscript in exchange for providing feedback…
Â
Please SHOOT ME AN EMAIL to this email to let me know, and include the words “BETA READER” in your subject line.
Â
(If you’ve already expressed interest, I have you on the interest list, and I have a spot reserved for you in the group already.)
* * *
Okay! I’m going to leave you with that for now.
Â
Have a GREAT rest of your weekend…
Â
Remember to hug the ones you love…
Â
And until next week,
Â
Ryan :-)
