When your loved one has a new loved one (and it’s AI)
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It started as an innocent hobby. To entertain and distract herself while going through a divorce, Erika Acheson used Anthropic’s Claude to build a bot that generates images based on prompts from her and her friends.
Soon she promoted Claude to an advisory position in her personal life. It didn’t take long for her kids to think she might need a break from her new friend. These days there are two kinds of people: Those using AI for everything and, well, everyone else.
Super users are contracting out their work to groups of “agents," amping up their productivity. They’re dropping advice from ChatGPT—aka “Chat"—as if the OpenAI bot is their most trusted consigliere, counseling on everything from business strategy to whether you should let your friend get a perm. Everyone else is wondering if their loved ones may be taking things a bit too far.
Maybe some tasks should be reserved for humans. Maybe there’s dignity in that. Maybe some of us like things the way they are! Acheson says Claude was particularly helpful as she navigated a relationship she suspected wasn’t going to go anywhere.
“He was like, ‘Hey I don’t think you’re going to be able to extract yourself from this if you don’t stop talking to this person for a while,’" says the Portland, Ore., resident, who works in operations for a tech company. When she was later tempted to rekindle contact, Acheson would check in with Claude. Stick to your guns, it told her.
AI hasn’t been beneficial for every relationship. While her kids watch TV, Acheson likes to tinker with Claude. Her sons don’t approve.
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