I notice a trend lately among people selling productivity and success type material. I define it as “We’re going to use AI to write you a personalized report or guide unique to you.”
But the execution doesn’t come out that way. In my two experiences with this so far, I’m presented with a series of questions with four or five pre-formatted answers. None of them match me exactly, so I choose the one that is least wrong. Then I get the “personalized” output, but it isn’t me at all. It’s a version of me based on the least wrong answer I had to give to the questions.
This results in forcing their framework onto me, when we have the technology to customize their framework for me but for whatever reason they don’t choose to do it this way. Then they want me to pay to get more information and “customization”, but why should I pay when the free material is wrong from the starting line?
We have the technology where I could give exact answers and the AI could customize their framework for me. I don’t understand why we’re not starting from this point. They may as well not use AI at all.
For instance, I tried one recently just to see what the output would be. One question asked where I wanted to live in five years. The least wrong answer was (not an exactly wording) “The house I currently live in, paid off and customized the way I want it.” OK, but why five years? What about seven or ten?
When it came to how much I owe on my house, I couldn’t provide the actual number for my mortgage balance. Based on the range, it decided I need to make $325,000 a year to achieve the life I want, but based on another least wrong answer, it says my self-limiting belief caps my income at $235,000 a year or within 10% of that number. I wish! Of course, it didn’t ask for my actual income. Then it generated a “customized” forward for me based on a well known author that I will not mention here. To see more, I have to pay, but if the forward and numbers we’re starting with are inaccurate they’re not getting money out of me for a “customized” book that isn’t me at all.
I ran this idea by ChatGPT. We concluded that they bolted AI onto their existing sales funnel. So rather than a truly customized product, what we got is essentially a 2011 “Which Star Wars Character Are You” Facebook quiz.
The frustrating part isn’t that the AI got me wrong. AI can only work with the information it’s given. The frustrating part is that the people building these products finally have technology capable of asking me what I actually think, understanding the answer, asking follow-up questions, and adapting their framework accordingly and they’re still giving me a multiple-choice quiz.
Don’t ask AI to write 20 pages explaining why Option C describes me. Let me tell the AI who I am.
Then we’ll see whether your framework actually fits.
