I recently received an obviously 100% AI-generated answer to an important and serious question from a very esteemed colleague. And was at a loss at first.

๐—ช๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ผ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐˜ ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜€? ๐—ช๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐˜‚๐—บ?

I have to admit, it felt pretty strange! When my counterpart “doesn’t even bother” to respond personally to my request and instead comes back with chat-GPT-generated, 0815-soft-spoken content with no opinion of his own. I could have done that myself. At first I felt that was disrespectful.

๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ท๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐˜‚๐—บ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€ ๐—”๐—ป๐˜๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ / ๐—ถ๐—ต๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ผฬˆ๐—ป๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎฬˆ๐˜๐˜‡๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ด / ๐—˜๐—ฟ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ต๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜‡๐˜‚ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ธ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป – ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—™๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ธ๐˜ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ถ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ž๐—œ ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป.

On the other hand… maybe the colleague is under stress and takes the individual advantage of AI to save time or formulate emails better? Perhaps he would rather enter a short prompt with his idea and leave the time-consuming formulation to the AI? Maybe he meant it in a totally appreciative way and didn’t want to do anything “wrong” with his answer and therefore consulted the AI?

๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜ ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜: ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ถรŸ ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐˜… !

And that’s why there’s only one solution, and a very simple one at that:

๐—”๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐˜‡๐˜‚๐—ต๐—ผฬˆ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป.
It also worked wonderfully in our case and we were able to resolve the matter quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, I also know that talking is such an issue in many projects / relationships. And that not every team has an open and constructive relationship with each other. Then such emails can quickly lead to resentment.

In such an environment, it could easily happen that you let your colleague down. Pestering him with awkward questions about “his” answer, exposing him in front of the whole team. And the mood in the project would have plummeted.

๐—™๐˜‚ฬˆ๐—ฟ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐˜‡๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ด๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ต๐—ฟ, ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐˜๐—ถ๐—ด ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฎ ๐—ž๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ญ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐˜ƒ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ž๐—œ ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜ / ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ. ๐——๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ต, ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ป ๐—ž๐—œ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—™๐—ฎฬˆ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—น๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ป – ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฒ ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ณ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ž๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜๐˜‡๐˜!

Dear XXX, thank you for getting me to think and to put things in order with your answer. This is really very helpful!

#informatikersindcool#auweiacommunication#speechisimportant

P.S.: I discussed this article with XXX in advance. This resulted in many exciting thought-provoking ideas. More on this in future posts.