Embracing AI: An Introvert's Journey Through Digital Friendships

As an introvert, I realized that making friends in the virtual world is just as difficult as it is in real life. Perhaps "difficult" is an exaggeration, but I notice that as I try to become friends with?digital tools and create an "AI companion," I inevitably return to my old friends – books and people. They know me, they introduce me to new worlds and ideas, and we can explore concepts such as alignment problems, longtermism and decision-making in contexts of moral uncertainty.

My first real introduction to the AI world came through Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. The Three Laws of Robotics made me curious and opened my mind to the potential—and challenges—that AI brings into our world.

While efficiency and productivity aren’t my main passions, I know that they can help create space in my life for more meaningful thoughts, ideas, and actions. After completing Andrew Ng’s online course, reading Co-Intelligence Living and Working with AI, and starting Ethan Mollick’s masterclass, I’ve begun embracing an AI-first mindset. Though I’m still in the “fake it until you make it” stage, I’m eager to learn more about how AI tools can enhance productivity. Here are some practical steps I’m taking for an AI-first mindset:

1. Always invite AI to the table: Much like with humans, if you want deeper connections, you need to invite them to the conversation. Treat AI as a companion or co-pilot in your work, actively involving it in your tasks for better collaboration.
2. Prompting. If you ask general questions, you'll receive general answers. To get more valuable responses, you need to learn how to give clear and specific instructions to an AI system.
3. Assign an Identity: Give AI a persona to guide its responses, helping it understand the context better. For example, say, “You are a book reviewer. Please provide feedback on the following book review.” This gives AI a defined role. If you add, "My career depends on it," you might get better answers
4. Define Your Task: Clearly state your goals or what you need help with to receive focused assistance.
5. Set Boundaries: Sometimes limitations increase creativity. Setting restrictions can lead to unique and innovative solutions.
6. Enhance Your Ideas: Use AI to brainstorm and expand your concepts for more depth.
7. Create Custom GPTs: Think about building personalized AI models that fit your needs.
8. Explore Existing GPTs: Check out public GPTs or ones you create to get different perspectives on your ideas.
9. Due Diligence: Verify Information. Always double-check what the AI generates to make sure it's accurate. One thing I’ve noticed is AI’s tendency to "hallucinate" - it generates plausible but incorrect information. For example, I asked AI to summarize a book I had just finished. To my surprise, the AI added details that weren’t in the book. When I pressed further, it even invented a chapter to justify these ideas, presenting them in a highly convincing manner.

I’m also getting into the idea of designing an AI twin. If you’re familiar with it, I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’m still figuring out my relationship with AI tools and how much I want them involved in my life. The idea of having an "Ione-Twin" that could work while I sleep and collaborate with colleagues in other time zones is appealing, but I’m still unsure about letting my AI twin explore the AI world unsupervised. Knowing myself, and assuming my AI twin would be a reflection of who I am, at some point, might get too creative and start making its own decisions. ??

While I’m not ready to fully embrace my AI twin yet, here are a few interesting steps I’ve discovered for designing one:

1. Design Your AI Twin: Start by creating an avatar and give your AI twin a name. Its "brain" will be built from the books you've read, articles, past work, experiences, and social media interactions. This shared knowledge will shape its memory, personality, and behavior.
2. Provide Context: Feed your twin with context from emails, articles, social media posts, and conversations. The more context it has, the more it can reflect your expertise, values, and preferences.
3. Instruct Its Behavior: Specify how your AI twin should act—its tone, language, and style. The more detailed your instructions, the better it can represent you.
4. Instill Values: Embed your personal or professional values into your twin to guide its decision-making and behavior.
5. Test your AI twin: Keep your AI twin private initially, observing how it behaves. Adjust any errors or hallucinations until it aligns with your expectations.
6. Publish the Twin: Once you're happy with it, decide how to share it. You can keep it private, make it public, or unlisted for friends and family only.
7. Monitor and Evolve: Just like you grow, so should your AI twin. Keep updating it with new information so it stays in sync with you, and make sure it keeps you in the loop as it evolves.

While I'm still trying to understand how AI will shape our lives and work, I’ve started to make peace with it, to ensure we use these tools wisely and enhance human capabilities, rather than replace them. I'll remain open to forming new "friendships" with AI, but I'll continue to cherish and hold dear my oldest companions—books and people—who have always been a source of wisdom, joy, and inspiration.

#AI #PersonalDevelopment #Technology #Books #Relationships