Gmail is Finishing My Sentences For Me (We`re All One Step Closer to Robot Armageddon)

2018-10-05 -

Smart Compose in Gmail is downright creepy. I`ll finish my own sentences, thank you very much. I clicked an option in Gmail called Enable Experimental Access. It`s innocuous enough--why not try something new? Anyone can try it. It`s listed right under settings. I wish I never had. Announced way back in May of this year, the new Smart Compose function sneaks up on you in a way that seems strangely foreboding. You`re typing along writing an email to your boss, and suddenly words pop up on the screen. You type: `I`m running late to our...` and Gmail automatically inserts the word meeting. `Do you have dinner plans for...` and Gmail adds tomorrow to your sentence. At first glance, it seems helpful. Then, it hits you. There`s a silent partner thinking, analyzing, and scheming behind the scenes. A shadow robot, an agent of English composition, is watching what you say. Google engineers claim they are not reading your emails, not storing any messages you`re sending to that colleague in the branch office, not cataloging every gripe session. They`re blissfully unaware. And yet--there`s a creeper in my email. At times, Smart Compose chooses not to play along, somehow not finishing my sentences for me. Typing `When do you get off of...` must be obvious, even to a fifth grader. The next word should be work. `Do you like your...` should be a no-brainer. I`m going to type boss next. If the word agenda doesn`t belong at the end of `What is on the...` I don`t know what would be. And neither does the bot. The AI works, then the AI doesn`t work. It`s robot roulette. Then Smart Compose suddenly pops up again

In the course of using the feature over the past few days, strange words like `agenda` did pop into place. The word `meeting` would sometimes appear out of nowhere, and sometimes it wouldn`t. According to what I`ve read, this is a work in progress, but it`s disconcerting to have a bot write your sentences. It will become much more disconcerting. One final word at the end of a question is one thing. In the near future, bots will be able to finish a paragraph as well, once we give them permission to analyze our entire Gmail archive. I`m guessing a smart bot today could look at all of my messages and write a reply to public relations reps in a snap. And, they could easily compose a message to a source--maybe even suggesting questions I`d send by email. This might all seem helpful, but please make sure you try the feature before you willingly oblige these bots. Today they will add a word at the end of `Let`s meet for lunch next...` but tomorrow they will start writing entire emails. Bots can already write articles (although they are crude and impersonal). My issue with Smart Compose is not that there`s some value in offering suggestions. It`s simply what comes after this in a few years or a few decades that could lead to a robot apocalypse because we don`t really know why it`s happening. I`ve written about the dangers of AI many times before, and it`s always a far-off scenario. Bots that can walk and talk, who understand inaudible commands, who drive cars. Smart Compose feels wrong because it is happening now; it feels like a strange entity invaded my email as words pop into place. I don`t really want to know how it works. I don`t want a bot writing my email, even if there was a time I thought that was maybe a good idea. It`s way too creepy. It feels like, as a writer, I`m being toyed with. Reduced. Marginalized. I`m fine with my wife finishing my sentences--she knows me better than anyone. Google? Gmail? It feels too much like the AI has taken a step too far. It`s magical and surreal. And, I turned it off. I`ve been finishing my sentences in unusual ways ever since.