Bot-assisted conversation

If we take our collective use of AI to some logical extremes, some interesting outcomes might result. For example, children might grow up being used to getting prompts by chatbots in their everyday conversation.

In such a future, rather than needing to think of the next thing to day, kids will just be able to choose from a menu. The idea of conversing without computer assistance will be seen as something archaic, a thing from the past.

We may come to look at unassisted conversation the way modern people look at life before shoes. Yes, we know that primitive peoples managed to get around in bare feet, but that knowledge does not seem relevant to modern life.

After all, our outdoor environment is no longer forests and meadows, but rather hard concrete sidewalks. The technology in our world and the technology on our feet have co-evolved to the point where we can no longer go back.

And so society may evolve to the point where unassisted improvisational conversations will no longer really be possible. If everybody else is using their chatbot assistant to hold a conversation, your atavistic attempt to speak without one would stick out like a sore thumb.

A weird thing about this is that if it comes to pass, it will all seem perfectly normal. People won’t even suspect that anything is missing, or that there could be another way.

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