As a university prof, I both teach and, to some extent, accommodate AI platforms in the classroom. This has been a daunting, trying, and humbling experience that requires continual adjustment and correction. But there is no way around it.
The hardest thing for me to adjust to: receiving AI-generated emails from students. The tone of these emails is usually “off”: too solicitous, or formal, or expansive. Sometimes they just seem bizarre. What really startles me, though, is this: I cannot hear a human being saying the words.
I estimate that since puberty I have spent approximately a third of my waking hours reading. I have a very fine ear for reading. And for me, the ground zero of reading is reading correspondence addressed to me. This is more fundamental to me, in terms of human interaction, than conversation.
When I receive an AI-generated email, even when it has been carefully fine-tuned, I see only a disguise, not the person – and I cannot hear a thing. This is profoundly unnerving to me. I need to get over this painful reaction.
