Hello friends,

Welcome to another edition of AI for the Rest of Us.

Words have power. We all know that. But lately, I’ve been thinking about how AI systems are getting remarkably good at wielding that power – sometimes in ways we don’t even notice.

This week, we’re digging into AI’s persuasive skills. Not just the headline-grabbing stuff like voice cloning (though that’s pretty wild and we certainly talk about it), but also the subtler ways these systems are designed to influence our thinking, validate our ideas, and guide our decisions.

I’m not here to sound the alarm or suggest we’re all being secretly manipulated. But I do think it’s worth understanding the psychology behind these systems and how they’re evolving from helpful tools into persuasive partners.

Buckle up. Here we go...

– Kyser

P.S. If you’re a new member and new to AI, I highly recommend you read Editions #2 and #3 - both of which answer the question, “What the heck is AI, anyway?”

A few months ago, my wife got a call from a local sheriff’s office. The man on the other end said she failed to show up for jury duty. This was the second time. The consequence? She was held in contempt of court. A fancy way of saying she’s in trouble. Big trouble.

The man told her she could come down to the Sheriff’s office to pay a fine to handle it. It was a Saturday. She needed to do it immediately. It needed to be in cash. If she didn’t? “Ma’am, you’ll be spending at least a few nights in jail.”

You know where this is going. It was a scam. And my wife, being the rule-follower she is, was buying it for a bit. Eventually, her wicked smart intelligence kicked in – and she immediately started harassing the guy before hanging up on him.

I bring this up because I often wonder since that happened ... What if that same call had come in my voice? What if someone cloned my voice to extort my wife? What if “I” had called her, panicked, saying I’d been in an accident and needed her to pick me up? (If I asked her to bring me cash she’d immediately hang up on me, so that’s a positive.)

Don’t think it’s possible? It is. And it’s really, really easy to do.

Welcome to 2025. Where sci-fi is quickly becoming a nonfiction thriller.

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And that wraps up another edition of AI for the Rest of Us. We hope you enjoyed this one, and as always, please share feedback if you’ve got it!

Until next time (and on Instagram between then)...