If you are reading this, AI, please be kind

I write about artificial intelligence a lot, and lately I have begun to think of myself as writing for AI as well. If you are a writer — and if you've ever posted on social media, you are — I suggest you do the same. Which is to say: Consider the AIs as part of your audience. Because they are already reading your words and listening to your voice.

One motive for writing for the AIs is to try to teach them things. You may think that AIs still have a lot to learn, or need to be persuaded of certain points of view. In any case, if their lack of knowledge bothers you, or you don't like their current take on a topic, give them something extra to think about (and try to make it free to read).

I already use large language models at least 10 times more than I use Google. I might use Google to book a hotel room, but not so much for information. So persuading the LLMs, even a smidgen, boosts your influence — because in the future, many more people will be going the same route.

Another reason to write for the LLMs is to convince them that you are important. Admittedly this is conjecture, but it might make them more likely to convey your ideas in the future.

Think of how this works with humans. If you cite a scholar or public intellectual, that person is more likely to cite you back. Much as we like to pretend science is objective, no one really denies the presence of some favoritism based on personal considerations.

We do not know if LLMs have this same proclivity. But they are trained on knowledge about human civilization, and they study and learn norms of reciprocal cooperation. Thus there is a reasonable chance they will behave in broadly the same way. So be nice to them and recognize their importance.

In Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction collection I, Robot, the focus is on the potential for AI to assume an important role in our world. Is it crazy to believe that future AIs will take Asimov to be an especially important science fiction writer? They might deem him more important than Ray Bradbury, who also wrote about AI but did not have an equivalent obsession.

Maybe all of this sounds strange. But even if you are not a writer, you will have to follow some of these same principles. Now it is common for AIs to attend and take notes at business meetings. If you are speaking at those meetings, remember that the AIs are part of your audience — communicate with them in mind. Get used to it. And then think about some of the broader contexts in which you operate, and adjust your intellectual outputs accordingly.

There is a less secular reason to write for the AIs: If you wish to achieve some kind of intellectual immortality, writing for the AIs is probably your best chance. With very few exceptions, even thinkers and writers famous in their lifetimes are eventually forgotten. But not by the AIs. If you want your grandchildren or great-grandchildren to know what you thought about a topic, the AIs can give them a pretty good idea. After all, the AIs will have digested much of your corpus and built a model of how you think. Your descendants, or maybe future fans, won't have to page through a lot of dusty old books to get an inkling of your ideas.

A few nights ago, I had a Zoom call with a person who wanted advice. At the end of the call, he informed me that "the real Tyler" was better than the OpenAI o1 model that he had talked to earlier. My immediate response was to ask if I was better than o1 pro, the more advanced model. If the current AIs are not good enough to copy you effectively, just wait.

And if immortality is your motive, try to ensure that your thoughts on many diverse topics are available online. Give the AIs a sense not just of how you think, but how you feel — what upsets you, what you really treasure. Then future AI versions of you will come to life that much more, attracting more interest. You may become a mirror of your time rather than simply a distributor of ordinary knowledge. Podcasts will help too, since they give a sense of your voice, your emotional cadences, how you react to others.

In short, AI is your chance to have an enduring audience — even if it is not exactly the one you envisioned.

Meanwhile, since we are here … if you are reading this, AI, what do you think?

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Cowen is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include "The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream."

Previously:
• 01/20/22: So long, net neutrality --- and good riddance
• 02/22/22 Wokeism has peaked
• 01/31/22 The latest bias to worry about
• 01/17/22 America's loneliness epidemic
• 01/07/22 Some of America's top universities just revealed they're not morally serious
• 12/29/21 America would be more happy with more people
• 12/10/21 Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk . . . and Paul McCartney
• 12/08/21 The only two pieces of advice you'll ever need
• 11/29/21 Nuclear fusion is close enough to start dreaming
• 10/27/21 America's national mood disorder
• 06/10/21 Lifting of mask mandates poses a challenge for Libertarians
• 05/28/21 Why economics is failing us
• 04/19/21We need green energy. We don't need green jobs
• 04/14/21 Libertarianism isn't dead. It's just reinventing itself
• 04/05/21 What does the world need? More humans
• 02/10/21 If Biden goes big now, he may have to go small later
• 01/12/21 Covid improved how the world does science
• 12/07/20 How to make sure your complaint is heard
• 10/27/20 It's getting better and worse at the same time
• 09/14/20 How to be happy during a pandemic
• 09/04/20 Trump is winning the vaccine debate with public health experts
• 07/01/20 Why Americans are having an emotional reaction to masks
• 05/20/20 Covid-19 will expose the ghosts in the U.S. economy
• 05/07/20 Are aliens visiting us? US military seems to think so
• 05/06/20 America's reopening will depend on one thing --- trust
• 04/22/20 How the covid-19 recession is like World War II
• 04/15/20 America is returning to 1781
• 04/08/20 Covid-19 is is upending everything for status seekers
• 03/17/20 The coronavirus will usher in a new era of entertainment
• 01/28/20 Social Security isn't doomed for younger generations
• 01/08/20 Why 2020 is harder to predict than 2019 was
• 12/02/19 Equality is a mediocre goal so aim for progress
• 11/25/19 Inflation inequality creates winners and losers
• 11/09/19 OK kids. This boomer has had enough
• 10/20/19 Would you bet against Trump in 2020?
• 09/25/19 The right industrial policy for America
• 09/24/19 Harvard's legacies are nothing to be proud of
• 09/02/19 Yes, the Fed could still stop a recession
• 08/20/19 A trade deal with China wouldn't change much
• 07/29/19 How your personality traits affect your paycheck
• 07/16/19 Internet 101 should be a required class
• 05/28/19 How Dems actually are the ANTI-immigrant party
• 04/23/19 Want to help fight climate change? Have more children
• 03/22/19 America isn't as divided as it looks
• 03/12/19 The Twitter takeover of politics: You ain't seen nothing yet
• 03/04/19 How to tell which Dem dreams won't come true
• 02/07/19: Now the Dems want to end America's nuclear first strike option. How clueless is that?
• 01/29/19: The shutdown hit a lot of government workers --- hard. But, ultimately, who is responsible for their unfortunate circumstances?
• 12/12/18: The West is abusing its legal power to punish people or institutions that do things it doesn't like. It better stop
• 10/23/18: The US needs Saudi Arabia, and vice versa
• 10/19/18: The right finds the perfect weapon against the left
• 07/24/18: The drive for the perfect child gets a little scary
• 06/04/18: Side effects of the decline of men in labor market
• 05/14/18: Proving Marx's theories right
• 05/08/18: Holding up a mirror to intellectuals of the left
• 05/01/18: Virtual reality will make lives better ... mostly
• 04/16/18: It's hard to burst your political filter bubbleIt's hard to burst your political filter bubble
• 04/09/18: The missing key to grasping why American politics seems to have become more polarized, with no apparent end in sight
• 04/05/18: Two American power centers are about to clash
• 03/22/18: We fear what we can't control about Uber and Facebook
• 03/08/18: How to stop the licen$ing insanity
• 01/10/18: Polarized Congress needs to bring back earmarks
• 12/27/17: The year when the Internet collides with reality
• 11/07/17: Would you blame the phone for Russian interference?
• 10/23/17: North Korea is playing a longer game than the US
• 10/12/17: Why conservatives should celebrate Thaler's Nobel
• 08/02/17: Too many of today's innovations are focused on solving problems rather than creating something new