Marketers and politicians too.
We don’t say them because it’s assumed. And because we’re afraid.
“I might be wrong.”
“I’m just guessing”
“This might be selfishly motivated.”
“It could be that I’m hallucinating.”
“I heard this somewhere but I don’t know firsthand that it’s true.”
“I know I sound certain, but I’m not.”
When an AI doesn’t say these things, we’re frustrated when they turn out to be the case. Because our default in interactions with machines is that they don’t dissemble, confuse or mislead.
Perhaps we should print these caveats out and read them before we read an ad, believe a scammy text or interact with an LLM.
Trust is the building block of cultures that matter. We have long manipulated trust for commercial and political ends, and now machines are following our lead.