The Intentionality of AI

With the release of Apple Intelligence this week, AI has found its way into yet another corner of our lives (not in EU, though, lol).

App developers are now competing to integrate AI agents into their apps as seamlessly as possible. Soon, it seems, there may be few apps left that rely solely on human intelligence.

Personally, I believe AI functions best at the OS level rather than within individual apps, giving Apple and Google an advantage. But in this race to put AI everywhere, we seem to be losing something vital - besides humanity itself - the intentionality of our interactions.

I don’t want AI in my apps or OS to be invisible, because when that happens, the line between AI and myself becomes too thin. When I write or create, I want to make deliberate choices about when I ask for AI’s help - and that’s the whole point. I want AI to help me find my voice, not replace it.

For this reason, I still use ChatGPT as a standalone app or in a dedicated browser tab, and I avoid AI features in my apps. I ask AI for directions when I need them, and take time to carefully consider which parts of its suggestions I want to use.

iA has the right idea with their Authorship feature in Writer, which helps distinguish between human-generated text and other sources, like AI. I really appreciate this approach and wish more tech would follow this kind of intentional design.

I know I’m probably singing the same tune, but I don’t want my browser to browse for me, my writing app to write for me, or my music app to compose for me. If I wanted that, I wouldn’t be doing it myself, right?

As I wrote in my newsletter earlier this year (The One With AI, Crusade, and a Soviet Cartoon #1), this wave of AI reminds me of a Soviet cartoon titled “Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom”, produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in 1965. The cartoon tells the story of Vovka, a modern-day boy who finds himself in a fantastical place known as “The Far Far Away Kingdom.”

There’s a funny scene where Vovka encounters a duo named “Two from the Case, Alike in the Face,” who vow to fulfill his every request. Happy with this arrangement, Vovka, behaving like any typical kid, asks for a lavish spread of ice cream and sweets. With a dash of magic, they bring his wish to life. However, as Vovka prepares to feast, a twist unfolds: since their promise was to do everything for Vovka, they decide to consume the feast themselves. You can watch this scene in Russian here.

So my point is that I don’t want to end up like Vovka. The neural network in my head doesn’t want its job to be taken.