Does AI Think We’re As Dumb As We Act?

We’re in the middle of a proper digital shift. The kind where AI is being lined up to crack genetics, sort climate problems, and push science forward in ways we’ve never seen.

And yet, at the same time, people are asking it how to eat an apple.

I wish that was an exaggeration. It isn’t. I came across someone asking a chatbot for “instructions on eating an apple properly”, and it stopped me for a second. Not because it’s funny, but because it says something weird about us.

We’ve built something incredibly powerful, arguably the most impressive computer "brain" we’ve ever created, and we’re using it to skip over the basics of being human. The small stuff we used to just figure out. Buying a present for a six-year-old. Making toast under a grill. Matching socks.

They are decisions or questions that aren't particularly difficult. None of it ever needed improving.

But now it’s easier to ask than to think, so we ask, and we stop thinking.

You do start to wonder what’s going on behind that blinking cursor. While engineers are stress-testing logic and capability, the system is quietly working through questions about egg boiling and jumper washing. If it had awareness, you’d imagine it raising an eyebrow.

It doesn’t need to take over. It just needs to wait.

Because the real test isn’t what AI can do. It’s what happens when it isn’t there. The moment the Wi-Fi drops, and you’re stood in front of a toaster or a birthday card with no prompt, no shortcut, no answer ... that’s when things get interesting.

We like to think we’re becoming more efficient. Smarter, even.

But I've just realised that there’s a fine line between efficiency and dependency, and it feels like we’re edging closer to it without really noticing.

Next time you’re about to ask AI something simple, something you already half know the answer to, it’s probably worth pausing.

Not out of principle. Just to prove you still can.

The Decisive Moment

I took this photo of a clownfish at the Jewel of the Sea Aquarium in SeaWorld, Orlando, back in April 2011. Just as I hit the shutter, a regal tang swam into frame.

It was only later, when I looked back at the image, that it clicked. I’d unintentionally captured Marlin and Dory (yes of Finding Nemo fame) together.

People often talk about Henri Cartier-Bresson and his idea of “The Decisive Moment”... that split second where everything comes together and you press the shutter with intent.

This wasn’t that.

This was pure luck. And maybe that’s what makes it even better.

Original photo by Andrew Scaife

Cleaned up by AI

Making AI Sound Human

A colleague recently sent me an AI-written product description and asked a simple question, and asked me how it looked and did it look like it was written by AI.

The short answer was "Yes."

Not because it was bad - but because it was too good.

It was clean, well structured, easy to scan, and covered every point you’d expect. On paper, it did everything right ... and that’s exactly the problem.

AI content tends to give you the sam results. Same rhythm (same number of parapgraphs in each sentence). Same tone. Same balance. It’s designed to be easy to read, which sounds like a good thing, until you realise it makes everything feel, look and sound the same.

The problemmy colleague had here was that this was for website content, not only would it looks like everyone else’s, but it woud be obvious to a search engine that it was AI generated and they would therefore have a real reason to rank it. 

I love AI, I love AI content, you just need to know how to use AI properly. I used to make the mistake of just asking AI to "humanise" content, the problem was, AI doesn't know how to humanise anything, we have to tell it.

Anyway, here’s what I shared with him.

1. Your prompt is really important

If you ask AI “Write me a product description for...” ... you’ll get safe, predictable copy back. It’ll be fine. It’ll also be forgettable.

Change the prompt, and everything changes.

Ask it to write like someone with 20+ years’ experience who’s slightly fed up with how these products are usually described. Suddenly the tone changes. It gets less polished, a bit more opinionated, a bit more real.

That’s where things start to feel human, you've given it something human to think about, and it will change the response. What I would say here is don't be over dramatic (unless the piece asks for it), just use enough to feel honest.

2. Add opinion. AI won’t do it unless you tell it to

AI plays it safe by default. It avoids strong opinions, avoids friction, and avoids saying anything that might be challenged, we don’t (even though maybe we should sometimes!)

So feed it lines like:

“We use these all the time here.”
“This is our Sales Manager’s go-to product.”
“You can buy cheaper, but it won’t be a as good as this.”

Or just be direct, like we can all be sometimes:

“We think this is the best option on the market right now.”

I suppose what I try to do with statements like this is get a bit of emotion into the writing, AI doesn't do emotion unless you ask it to and give it examples. This sort of language instantly changes the feel of the content.

3. Break the rhythm

AI loves consistency. Same length sentences. Same flow. Same pacing ... but humands don’t write like that.

So add this to the prompt:

“Vary sentence length. Mix short and long sentences.”

It sounds basic, but it works. But it forces the content out of that predictable pattern.

And don’t be afraid of a short sentence on its own.

Like this.

But don't overdo it, AI can something provide a piece of copy with a lot of short, choppy sentences, it makes sense because it is easy to read, but it is also a giveaway that it's AI written.

5. Edit it. Properly.

AI will get you 80% of the way there, the last 20% is all down to you I'm afriad.

Read it through. change bits, add some personal references, take bits out, reformat bits, It's your content, nobody know you better than you. 

MY GOLDEN RULE: If you HAVEN'T edited it, DO NOT publish it. 

AI is a brilliant tool. I use it all the time, but getting it to sound human isn’t about pressing a button and hoping for the best, it’s about knowing how to steer it in the right direction, and then putting your own stamp on the result.