I don’t care about AI, because AI is neither the product nor the solution.
I don’t care about AI. I don’t care that your product has it. I don’t care that you think we’re on the cusp of some huge developments—that the real AI breakthrough is just around the corner.
I’ll go further: I don’t think most people care about AI, because “AI” is not a thing to care about. AI is a broad term that covers a whole lot of territory, akin to how a previous generation sweatily appended the terms “net” and “cyber” to everything to signal alignment with a vague conception of “the internet.” Nothing furrows my brow and sets off my BS detector faster than seeing “AI-assisted” slapped onto your product’s marketing messaging, because that tells me you’re more focused on a buzzword rather than a tangible benefit.
AI is a catchall term that describes a thing in service of another thing. It’s neither the product nor the goal. It’s like selling people on the capabilities of plumbing and paper manufacturing when they just want to make a bathroom stop during a road trip after a poorly-planned Taco Bell menu decision. It overlooks the goals (functional restroom, stocked with toilet paper) and desired outcomes (gastrointestinal relief, resumption of travel) in favor of the infrastructure.
I don’t care about AI, but I do care about people:
I care about their problems and how to help them solve them.
I care about their challenges and how to overcome them.
I care about their habits and how to support or change them.
I care about human-centered goals and how to reach them.
If the best way to help people includes AI, great! If not, also great. AI is one potential ingredient in service of a greater, more meaningful thing. The place of AI is in the middle ground between people and their goals. Focus on the humans.
PS. My first draft of this post was an homage to Mazieres and Kohler’s brilliant academic paper, “Get me off Your Fucking Mailing List.” It went something like this:
I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI. I don’t care about AI.
I’m still not sure which version of this post I like better.
