Don’t delegate your emails to ChatGPT

Last week, I had a discussion with a friend about ChatGPT and how it will impact us. He uses ChatGPT to do work for him that he considers useless, so he can focus on hobbies and dedicate his time to things that matter to him.

Writing emails to colleagues is unexciting at the best of times, and chatbots seem like the perfect system to offload this unthankful task. My friend thinks so. We must, however, ask ourselves what exactly we are offloading.

In a French café, the type where old men with red, bumpy noses drink wine from early morning until late at night, I read a metal sign saying communication has seven stages. 

1. First, a thought arises, 
2. Which we decide to communicate. 
3. We think of the words to communicate the thought, 
4. Which we then say. 
5. The words are heard by the other,
6. Who interprets them, 
7. Creating thoughts and feelings. 

The sign invited us to refrain from judging others in discussions, as communication can go wrong at each stage.

Which stage(s) do we offload to ChatGPT when we prompt it to write an email on our behalf? As it can not think or decide, we offload stages 3 and 4, hoping that the ensuing stages (5-7) are not affected. This, however, is not the case for two reasons.

First, a recent study surveyed people on receiving AI work slop, i.e. useless AI-generated content at work, and found that 15% of the content qualified as AI work slop. The study showed the effect of AI work slop on the receiver, who is required to decipher the content and decide what to do, possibly rework the content or confront the sender. This costs the receiver disproportionately extra time. If you have ever received a ChatGPT-generated email, you might know how frustrating this can be. It seems real, as if there are thoughts behind it, but a closer inspection reveals it lacks substance. Looking back at the stages, it shows how we are not necessarily offloading just to ChatGPT, but also to our conversational partner in stages 6 and 7, asking extra effort from them.

Second, writing helps us understand our thoughts and uncover what we don’t understand. Stage 3, thus, helps us with stages 1 and 2. By throwing our first thoughts into ChatGPT, we bypass the responsibility of critically thinking about the email.

Offloading company emails to ChatGPT may seem trivial, but it exemplifies a broader trend in our society. When we offload something, we neglect its importance and reduce the process to its product. When using AI to offload communication, you may send a message, but you distance yourself from connecting with your discussion partner. When you offload creativity, you may obtain an artsy artefact, but you distance yourself from your creative self. When you offload decision-making, you may find a next step, but you distance yourself from the responsibility of your choices and the opportunity to learn from them.

When using AI to offload communication, you may send a message, but you distance yourself from connecting with your discussion partner.

The discussion with my friend became heated as I noticed his indifference. He believes most company email contacts are substanceless anyway. Still, offloading them should be done with caution. If you start offloading company emails, what else will you offload in the future? You might think you will not offload personal communication, but norms can shift quickly with respect to technology. In a famous Dutch video from the late 90s, Frans Bromet interviews people on the street to ask them whether they plan to buy a cell phone. Then, no one wanted one. Now, everyone has one. Besides, people are already using chatbots for medical advice, therapy and intimate relationships, which has influenced multiple suicides already. 

Furthermore, the theory of technological determinism suggests that new technologies not only exist in predetermined environments but also reshape those environments and our interactions with them. For example, cars changed the way we design our cities, with detriment to accessibility for pedestrians and other vulnerable traffic participants. The introduction of self-driving cars brings further problems. As they function best in predictable environments, policy might prioritise their needs over human needs by favouring unpredictability. How will ChatGPT reshape our real-world interactions, given its limited capacities, such as difficulty grasping nuances, accents, and jokes, and dealing with uncertainties?

ChatGPT doesn’t directly improve your life when used as a shortcut for human tasks. It just makes life seem simple, which human life simply isn’t.

I’m currently walking the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage from Portugal to the Galician capital of Santiago, and quotes like “the journey is more important than the destination” pop up everywhere to advise on hiking - and living. Such wholesome quotes normally make me cringe, so I grudgingly admit that I am more and more drawn to their general significance. When we offload a process to ChatGPT to obtain a product, we shortcut the journey to reach the destination. We should be conscious of what we are offloading and remind ourselves that quicker is not better. The journey, however long it takes, is often more important than the destination.