Behold a cautionary tale:
One of the reasons I am so skeptical about AI-generated content of any kind (not just emails and sales copy) is because every time I’ve seen it, I’ve been reminded of a guy I know up in this business who I suspect is a bonafide sociopath. No, not the “Dexter” kind of sociopath who’ll drug you at an event, and then you wake up in another room bound by plastic wrap to a table with pictures of all the people you’ve wronged kind of sociopath.
This particular guy is more of a benevolent sociopath.
A sociopath is simply someone who’s not “wired” to care about anyone else. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t. And while probably 95% of people reading this email probably know who this fellow is, those same 95% would have absolutely no idea he is a sociopath by talking to him if they didn’t know how sociopaths operate, communicate, and, frankly, survive in society without being exiled, jailed, or even executed (by the state, someone they wronged, whoever).
Personally, I don’t think they live very easy lives.
And before anyone asks:
No, I am NOT going to say who it is, or give a single “clue” or anything like that — so don’t bother asking. It’s not the point of this, and I have no desire to dox him, or do him any harm whatsoever, as he is not out there screwing anyone over from what I’ve seen, even if he’s racked up quite a few enemies (as well as intensely loyal friends and fans).
But let me give you an example of what I mean:
I remember being at a seminar we both spoke at many, many years ago. And during his talk I remember him starting to cry at an odd point when telling his story. It was odd because, one, it wasn’t really all that sad of a story in the first place. And, two, he did it during a part of the story where it made zero sense to cry.
He was off by a few “beats” at least.
And it was kinda jarring.
The person sitting with me noticed the same thing:
“Why’s he crying?”
And when I looked at other people around us, you could see the confusion on some of their faces, too, while the majority were intensely engaged totally oblivious they were listening to utter bull shyt.
It was just a very strange thing.
And that was when I realized he was almost certainly a sociopath — meaning, he lacks the ‘wiring’ to care about people. Again, I am not saying he screws people over (to my knowledge, at least). But he does seem to lack humanity: that piece of what makes normal people human, makes us feel empathy, makes us feel guilt, fear, sadness, shame, loss, whatever.
In other words:
He thinks more like a machine than a man —
Very cold, very calculating, and with zero remorse.
If I am correct about him, and I may no be, admittedly (this is a cautionary tale, not an FBI investigation), then even if he did screw someone over, he wouldn’t really be bothered by it. Or if he fleeced someone of everything and got them framed for a crime, he wouldn’t even bat an eye. It just wouldn’t emotionally register.
Personally, I do think he’s been taught the difference between right and wrong.
And that is why he doesn’t do these things.
This isn’t a seminar on how to ID sociopaths though.
(See Ken McCarthy’s magnificent copywriting course for that.)
It’s simply an example of how someone with little or no empathy — like AI — thinks.
It will always lack humanity.
Just like the guy above who is great with statistics, looking coldly at numbers, and being an overall Psychological Marketer (like I described in the September 2023 Email Players issue)… but he has to fake human emotions and behavior in order to fit in. Some of the really dangerous sociopaths are almost supernaturally good at faking humanity and do a lot of evil things. Think Ted Bundy who was almost supernaturally good at being “more human” than regular humans when it came to faking humanity. But if you know what to look for, you know something is “off” and can adjust your action accordingly.
On a side note:
This was very accurately shown in the TV show Dexter with the Sgt. Doakes character.
He got a creepy vibe from Dexter, but couldn’t rationalize it, just knew it was there.
Point is, there is no real human connection there.
No humanity.
And it shows in how the guy I am referring to sells and even tells stories.
Which brings me to the point:
That’s your AI like fapGPT, etc, too.
AI cannot be human, so will always lack humanity, even if it tries to pose as human, copies humans, pretends to be humans, takes that data and improves at trying to be human even though it’s not human and never will be human. There are many legit uses for AI, and I have to make that clear for the peanut gallery obsessed with all-things AI. And while you can obviously do whatever you want, I would not rely on it for anything other than cold calculations, brainstorming (like you would a swipe file), research, and other tasks that require no real humanity. I certainly would NOT use it for creating — whole cloth — emails, sales copy, content, customer service (does you really like talking or chatting to prompts when you have a serious customer service question?) or anything that requires genuine humanity.
And just to be clear about something else:
When I say “humanity” I’m referring to that unique spark of individuality that is you and nobody else. Humanity cannot be copied, it cannot be “prompted,” and it can’t really even be “reverse engineered.” You cannot “prompt” your way into a relationship — romantic, friendship, or otherwise — unless you’re one of these deviants who buys secks dolls or, I suppose, a character in Black Mirror.
Something else to compute:
If you ever saw the movie Watchmen (or read the comicbook) there’s a scene that perfectly shows what AI does when it tries to create a relationship by doing everything “right” and checking all the humanity-boxes.
The scene is when Laurie is having sex with Dr. Manhattan.
(Who is a being of basically unlimited power who can bend matter to his will).
And she’s in to it and it’s hot and heavy until she feels another pair of hands.
And then she sees another face.
And then she realizes she’s not doing the horizontal polka with Dr. Manhattan…
She doing it with half a dozen (I forget how many) Dr. Manhattan clones!
Dr. Manhattan (whose humanity was all but gone by then) assumed pleasuring her like that would make her happy, while the “real” him was in another room working on this machine to save the world, and he’s not really focused on her at all, and not emotionally engaged with her on any level whatsoever even if he was ticking all the right boxes for pleasuring her.
So there is no connection, no empathy, and no relationship.
He’s just going through the motions, phoning it in based on algorithms he calculated from his years of knowing her, talking to her, listening to her, being in close proximity with her.
Thus, there was no real connection.
Because, let’s face it, there was nothing there to connect with.
That, to me, is a very good metaphor for using something like AI (fapGPT, whatever) to write your emails and sales copy and content and grow a relationship with your list, customers, and clients with. Because the relationship transcends marketing and copywriting. There’s a transfer of energy and emotion (not in a woo-woo sense, this is all very rational) between you and the person you’re trying to serve.
The old Roman legal meaning of a client was someone under your care and protection.
They considered that relationship sacred.
Which is interesting because in the book “Ten Greatest Sales Persons” the late master of selling Joe Girard used that exact same word — sacred — to describe his customer relationships.
fapGPT or any other AI cannot do that.
Because it’s not really human.
It’s just a tool — like a calculator.
And while a calculator is a useful tool for pushing in numbers (prompting numbers?), I don’t think you’re going to let it negotiate with, deal with, or try to form a relationship with your accountant, stock broker, or friendly neighborhood IRS agent.
I fully realize those with a vested interest in AI disagree with this.
I’ll get a reply with “what about ___” with half a dozen AI marketing guys.
And while I don’t doubt the sincerity of all the AI guys (although some are clearly selling utter bull shyt, tapping into the gold rush, going by what people who buy their offers are telling me lately), I don’t believe a single prompted word I hear about it at this point except from a very small handful of people I know, like, & trust — such as my pal Shane Hunter, who intelligently approaches the topic from the perspective of wanting to better serve his clients vs just selling stuff.
Anyway, this is all a very small part of a very long conversation.
I’m sure I’ll write more about it.
And no, I’m not saying AI is totally useless.
There are legit uses for it (research, etc).
But nothing can replace the physical act of writing, editing, rewriting, and the forces you set in motion in doing so to create a bond with your readers, list, customers, audience.
My opinion.
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Ben Settle
