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Who do you tell your deepest secrets to? People are turning to ChatGPT for free therapy. It comes at a hidden cost. Don’t say you haven’t been warned…

"The Metaverse is Dead… Welcome to the Whisperverse”

One Big Thing

Welcome to the Whisperverse

A trend was going around social media platforms last week encouraging people to type the following prompt into ChatGPT:

“Based on our past interactions, tell me something about myself I might not be aware of.”

Here is the answer I received. (edited for brevity)

I found this response reasonably accurate, as people have told me this over the years. It’s a benign response and seems like a bit of a parlor trick. But the response from my next prompt was bit more chilling.

“Now tell me something that could make me vulnerable.” (edited for clarity)

The truth is that I’m consistently frustrated when clients fail to heed my advice and then struggle. It’s the paradox of being a consultant. This year, I’ve become more selective about the projects and clients I take on in an attempt to maximize the impact I can have. I have also been declining connection requests for the first time in years. So, while ChatGPT isn’t telling me anything I didn’t know, it knows things about me that I don’t tend to talk about. 

Want to try it for yourself? https://chatgpt.com/ 

Are my struggles unique to someone in my position? Certainly not. ChatGPT is looking at the universe of information it’s been trained on and pattern matching. So what’ the big deal?

Newsflash: The Media Manipulates Us

It’s been going on since the beginning of time. Media has been used to manipulate the masses since Gutenberg invented the printing press. Malleus Maleficarum, a popular book written in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer, reshaped how the Western world saw the practice of witchcraft, and is now believed to have caused the Salem Witch Trials. Facebook didn’t invent media manipulation, but it certainly has perfected the craft.

In 2014, Zuckerberg and company were busted for manipulating vulnerable teens for the benefit of advertisers. The Guardian reported that: “Facebook showed advertisers it can identify when teenagers feel “insecure,” “worthless” and “need a confidence boost,” according to leaked research quietly conducted by the social network.”

Social networking sites have used AI for years to decide what content we see. TikTok’s algorithm (an older term for AI) is so robust that the FBI has labeled it a weapon of the Chinese government. These advanced computer programs track our online behavior and draw insights based on patterns. It would shock you to learn how accurate they can be.

We allow activity tracking because it makes our lives more convenient. It means we see ads that are relevant to our interests, we get recommendations of what to watch on TV, we even get suggestions of what to buy for our spouse on their birthday. And most of us don’t give it a second thought. Which is a problem.

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Meet Your New Therapist

It’s well documented there’s a mental health crisis. And people’s access to mental health care is limited by insurance companies and the stigma associated with treatment. So people are turning to ChatGPT for therapy. AI chatbots offer the illusion of privacy along with the entire global library of therapeutic experiences. 

I mentioned this to a team member of mine last week, who admitted to spending hours using ChatGPT as a therapist and coach. They said it often feels good to be listened to without judgment. The insights it offers are meaningful and have helped with their reflection and self-awareness (see above.) Most importantly, it’s free.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Sweet Nothings

A few days later I read an article by my friend and AI researcher, Louis Rosenberg. It was called: The “Whisperverse”: The future of mobile computing is an AI voice inside your head.

Meta’s new Ray-Ban smartglasses have been a surprise hit. In a recent earnings call, EssilorLuxottica's CFO Stefano Grassi said that in the EMEA region they’re the top selling product in 60% of their stores. They have great speakers, cameras with image stabilization, and noise cancelling mics. Prices start at $300.

In the US (exclusively for now subject to legislation in other countries) they use a combination of voice recognition and cameras to feed the wearer’s contextual surroundings to an AI, offering instant answers to questions like “What am I looking at?” Zuck recently announced new features coming soon like Reminders, Live Translation, Spotify and QR Code Scanning.

New smart wearables are coming from Apple, too, as patent filings suggest Airpods with embedded cameras are in development. And Google is thought to be working on a new version of their smart glasses, too.

The Future Is Coming Faster Than You Think

In 2019 I delivered a keynote at the Skolkovo Innovation Institute in Moscow (I don’t imagine I will be doing that again.) The clip below explains how Meta’s vision is to use cameras on smartphones and glasses to duplicate the real world, so they can manipulate our experience in reality. It’s worth a watch. The metaverse isn’t some imaginary virtual world. It’s a melding of digital and physical worlds. Manipulating the physical world is hard, the virtual one is easy.

Most people ignored that message from Meta in 2019. People thought it was far fetched. But they are doing exactly what they said they were going to do. And they’re going to be successful because they’ve found a product that people will want, that’s affordable to buy, and will offer tremendous convenience to the user.

With Your Permission

Because of the convenience of having an AI agent at our beck and call, we will give permission to have them listen and watch. They will learn all about us to become better servants. Our AI agents will be like our best friends, therapists, research and administrative assistants, and so much more. They will whisper all the information we want into our ears whenever we need it. 

While the device is inexpensive, the tech that runs it behind the scenes is expensive to deploy. Jesse Dodge, an analyst from the Allen Institute on AI, says that every time we ask ChatGPT a question it uses the same amount of power as a light bulb burning for 20 minutes. Tech companies are opening data centers as fast as they can to keep up with our demand for cloud storage and AI. One estimate is that data centers will account for 11% of our global power demand within a decade. The power required to run AI servers even has tech companies reopening shuttered nuclear power plants.

We Love Free Stuff

History shows that most people are unwilling to pay cash for services. Just look at streaming services like Prime, Disney+, and Netflix, which are returning to advertising-supported models. Few people are willing to pay for news, which has led to all the click-bait garbage we see online. And it’s unlikely that the massive cost of AI usage will be born by you or I. But don’t worry, advertisers are standing by.

The ability to manipulate us by whispering into our ears will be the greatest leap in advertising efficiency since the internet. We’ve already lost the ability to tell what’s real and what’s fake. But we ain’t seen nothing yet. Rosenberg is imploring the governments to step in to regulate AI, but it’s unlikely they can move fast enough (though the EU is trying.)

The Paradox of Technology

Technology is neither good or bad. The printing press standardized languages, increased literacy, and spread knowledge around the world. It was great, unless you were a witch, or maybe a religious or political organization trying to control information.

The automobile increased our mobility and ruined our air. The internet and social media have spread knowledge, brought down authoritarian regimes, and reconnect lost friends. They’ve also increased anxiety and depression, empowered bad actors to manipulate elections, and turned everyone into an influencer.

Smartphones gave us the world’s information in our pockets while stealing our attention from the world. 

AI is just another in a long line of paradoxical technologies. You should be using it for all the good if offers. But pay close attention to who whispers in your ears. 

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