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Parents and politicians who lobby for phone bans in schools and age limits on social media (brain rotten! Graphic material!) could spend some time examining their own dependence on technology (brain rotten! Graphic material!). I write this as someone who not only wastes time scrolling through clothes on Instagram and food I’ll never eat or cook on TikTok, but also reflexively responds to emails late at night.
Technology is now infiltrating even the most personal parts of our work lives. A series of recent reports shows that employees are increasingly turning to chatbots for coaching and companionship. “I hate myself for saying this, but this is a big reason why Geminis do so well.” [is] Because it works as a colleague without any drama,” one executive told Axios about Google’s bot. No one will criticize me or talk behind my back for asking stupid or last minute questions. ”
This desire for a frictionless workplace, focused on efficiency rather than the messy waste of human relationships, may have been further reinforced by remote working. This echoes a broader shift towards convenience, such as being able to order a taxi, food or new clothes with just a few swipes on your phone.
Author Kathryn Jether-Morton recently complained that this was infantilizing. “Technology companies have successfully tricked us into thinking that life itself is an inconvenience that we must keep escaping to a room of predictive algorithms and digital pads with single-tap commands,” she wrote. Her form of resistance is “friction maximization,” that is, reviving some effort.
Perhaps we should be more careful about what we streamline at work, too. Annoying humans sharing your workspace aren’t without benefits. Isolation in the workplace has a negative impact not only on the employee but also on the organization. A study last year found that social interaction helps “develop ideas” and spreads “tacit and informal knowledge.”
Another potential risk of relying on a chatbot rather than a colleague is that you will become accustomed to flattery. Anyone who has used generative AI will be familiar with its flattering reactions. According to the bot’s answers, every question is great and every thought is insightful. I don’t know about you, but some egos can do with a little less boost.
Still, while I’m happy to criticize greedy and ruthless tech companies, I’m reluctant to put the blame solely on their shoulders. Indeed, is AI’s reflexive positivity more a reflection of an already pervasive ego-massage culture than an algorithmic perversion?
He is a business psychologist and Don’t be yourself The corporate world is full of human executive coaches who “love their clients and tell them they’re great.” Such behavior not only feeds into the boss’s “anxious narcissism,” but also keeps the coach on the payroll. [they] We often choose stories that boost our egos. ”
Some see this as due to dysfunction in related areas. One psychotherapist and coach wrote last year that people are turning to AI therapists because they are “no better than a human being who has quit their job. Instead of challenging illusions, telling hard truths, and helping people build resilience, modern therapy has descended into nodding, empty reassurances, and endless validation.”
Anxious narcissism is modeled at the top. Donald Trump’s desire for flattery seems only to grow stronger. Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the president for “the most transformative year in American foreign policy since at least the end of World War II,” as Trump appeared to be asleep next to him.
For people without immense wealth or power, the desire to be flattered at work may be more understandable. According to Harvard historian Eric Baker, the average workforce is experiencing “a breakdown in faith in the idea that income is a reward proportionate to an employee’s skills, knowledge, and human capital.” In lieu of adequate compensation, some people ask for “just recognition in lieu.”
Many AI coaching companies are actively trying to capitalize on this trend by providing positive evaluations to their workers. Many people will argue that their product has value. Perhaps in a workplace where there is no feedback or even praise for a job well done, insincere flattery is better than nothing.
But like author Kim Scott, radical candorwrites that AI is only useful if it “occasionally challenges your assumptions or suggests improvements.” If a virtual companion “constantly just reinforces your ideas without providing helpful feedback or asking probing questions, that’s performance, not praise.”
