Mental Health Philosophy: You are mattering

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Microsoft Brings OpenAI Chatbot to Outlook, PowerPoint and Word.

March 17, 2023

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Word, PowerPoint and Outlook emails will get new AI assistants called Copilots
— Read on www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-16/microsoft-msft-brings-openai-chatbot-to-outlook-powerpoint-and-word

—- I must be getting old and irrelevant.

There is nearly nothing about AI technology that excites me anymore. Its really just boring sameness, computers doing the same thing, with more of it, over and over. Whatever they proclaim as new in the tech, AI world, is just computers doing the same thing that they’re doing. There’s more bright colors, there’s higher resolution, there’s a quicker processing. To my mind just goes: who is caring?

The people who are excited about AI are not really stupid. I know they can often show signs of intelligence and that really they are just being regular, unreflecting human beings doing human being stuff. And that’s ok to be human puppy dogs.

🐶

I’m already wondering, how can I opt out of the AI in my word office programs.

Seriously. It feels like something that’s being imposed upon me, that I don’t care about, is not useful outside of workplace bureaucracy, and that is really making the world a much worse place.

I mean, unless we’re going to Mars ! 😄. Hey, AI would be good for going to Mars.

Enjoying this? The Sunday Same is my biweekly letter: one essay like this, every other Sunday morning, straight to your inbox. Subscribe at lanceamh.substack.com.

A note on how I use AI. I write everything on this blog myself: the ideas, the arguments, the words. I do use AI, but as an editor, not a co-author. It helps me with grammar, formatting, and structure. That use is recent: AI has been part of my process only for roughly the past year’s worth of posts. Everything older was written without it, because there was nothing like it to use. What I have found is that AI most often misinterprets what I write philosophically, so its suggestions are usually wrong, and a good deal of my attention and editing goes into sculpting each post until it reflects the ideas correctly. The ideas are never AI’s.

For transparency, I keep a Word document of my original writing and the full exchanges, back and forth with the AI, that produced each post. If anyone is interested in how a piece came together, that record is available.

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2 responses to “Microsoft Brings OpenAI Chatbot to Outlook, PowerPoint and Word.”

Jon Awbrey says:

17 Mar 2023 at 2:36 pm

Today’s Acronym ☞ YASSSSFYCO

Yet Another Self-Serving Surveillance “Service” From Your Corporate Overlords

Reply
Jon Awbrey says:

17 Mar 2023 at 2:15 pm

#TodaysAcronym ☞ #YASSSSFYCO

Yet Another Self-Serving Surveillance “Service” From Your Corporate Overlords

Reply

About this blog

Essays in mental health philosophy—less “tips,” more why things work (or don’t). I look at the first principles under therapy, psychiatry, psychology, and everyday life, and occasionally share notes from papers and books-in-progress.

This space stands alongside—not inside—my counseling practice. If you’re seeking therapy in Colorado, there’s a link in the footer.

About the author

Lance Kair, LPC, blends philosophy, mindfulness, and counseling to help clients find agency, meaning, fulfillment, and healing through deep understanding, self-awareness, and compassionate therapeutic collaboration.