That’s what I was going to say

 A thought for today…

Yesterday I watched a short video about how implied communication happens. There’s a set of mutual assumptions: when you communicate with me, I assume that you are sharing meaning. And, furthermore, that you understand that what you are sharing will be interpretable by me. 

So, you say something vague and I search for a clue in our relationship or topically. And it works some of the time.

I would add that one of the reasons why we do this is intimacy - it says “I trust you to get me.”

Pick Up Artists also use this format to fake intimacy, test boundaries, and pick up clues about the other person:

“We finish each other’s…”

“Sandwiches”

“That’s what I was going to say!”

AI does it too. And, when AI does it, we make the same assumptions that we do with people - that it “gets us” or it’s digging for information. 

But it’s not. AI has less intention than the dumbest orange cat. It’s just being unclear. 

This is one reason why we unintentionally accept poor quality AI output - because it feels flattering or deep. We have to learn to hold output that feels human to machine standards to use AI well for knowledge work.