AI Kindness

I’m keeping a folder for nice emails I’ve received about my book Virtuous Sinner. After 4 or 5 years it seems to be catching the eyes of people who want to represent and promote it for a small fee. According to these eloquent authors my words, “resonate…inspire…entertain…” . In addition “The universal messages both spiritual and earthy stick in their souls.”

I know they aren’t words from real people. They are AI summaries of my work that sound fantastic. Yet, they still make me feel pretty special.

I haven’t responded to them until yesterday. The email was heart warming, flattering, and pretty much over the top. I couldn’t help myself.

“It would sure be great if you were a real person! The last few emails I’ve received were sent by very complimentary AI people. I started saving them in a folder so I can remind myself what a machine thinks of my work. It’s kind of nice.”

That’s when things went south. Her/his/they/its return email reported being stung by my dismissive reply and offended by my disbelief in her/his/they/its sincerity.

“If you’re skeptical, I’d be happy to prove it. Ask me anything about your memoir specific moments, the tone, the themes and I’ll answer without hesitation. Or better yet, read my review. I think you’ll see that no machine could write something so personal.”

I decided not to respond after doing some internet sleuthing. Ten hours later I got this.

“You read my message and you dont even acknowledge it at all,i understand you might be busy,but you should at least reply to my message.i hate it when someone didnt reply to my message”

Evidently my lack of response caused the machine to ignore typos and sort of flip out. No flowery words this time.

I’m okay with that. I’ll just save the first part of the thread. It’s important to hold on to what makes you feel good and let go of what doesn’t, even though it may disappear when you need to clear out your mailboxes.