[Apologies if this is not the place for this discussion]
As we know, Apple is expeditiously moving to catch up on the Generative AI train. I’m wondering what the future of iOS looks like in a world of Generative AI. I am bad at the whole “being a human” thing, and I struggle to respond to text messages. As I sit here and procrastinate responding to said texts, I am tempted by the thought of an AI copilot for iMessage. However, from a philosophical perspective, it defeats the purpose of communicating with someone you care about if you aren’t the one responding. I am seeking human opinions on where we draw the line of using Generative AI for communicating.
I would only use AI copilot as an “editor.” I would not use it to reply in my stead. If someone takes the time to send me a message (unless it is junk/spam), I will take the time to respond as a matter of courtesy and respect. If someone texts me too much, I’d find a way to tell them to text me less frequently. I have also learned to “train” some people by purposely waiting 36-48 hours before responding so they don’t expect immediate replies. I do the same with email.
Ask youself this question, “Would I appreciate it if this MPU response was AI generated and Bmosbacker never took the time or bother to respond personally?” I doubt you would. Likewise, I doubt others would appreciate receiving an automated, AI generated text message from “you.”
That said, you are to be applauded for being sensitive to the issue.
At the risk of being labeled a Luddite, I’ll confess that I am more and more resistant to AI anything. Most often, I find it invasive and not at all helpful, and I’m more likely to look for ways to turn it off than to use it.
Thanks for your reply. I think that is a wise answer and one that most would agree with. I think I am speculating about a future that may never come. I struggle to respond to messages because they cause anxiety like “what should I say?”, “how long should this conversation continue?”, or “what’s a good stopping point for this conversation?” I don’t think Generative AI will ever be able to help me overcome those obstacles. I think there is a generational aspect here as well. I am part of “Gen Z” and we grew up our entire life having unlimited instantaneous communication. I find it hard to communicate with people my age when their entire lives are already shared with me via instagram posts, daily snapchat stories, and BeReals. I might be in the minority, but I’ve never had to be intentional about “catching up” with my friends since it’s already been passively shared with me and that’s affected my ability to hold a conversation.
Other than spellcheck, I hope I would never do this to someone.
If you’re feeling anxious about the message, write until you find a sentence that’s what you really think, then delete everything before it and keep going.
I have a “radical” suggestion. Take it for what it is worth.
We make a massive mistake by substituting real conversations with text messaging, social posts, and emails. They have their place, certainly, but must be kept in their place.
If someone keeps trying to text me (especially frequently, with a long text or a long series of texts), I gently tell them that I cannot always respond by text or email. “Let’s talk by phone, or let’s meet…”
This will require retraining yourself and attempting to “retrain” others. I do not believe we need to let the behaviors of others dictate ours. We should always be respectful and kind, but that does not require allowing others to dictate our communication frequency or methods.
The above will run counter to your generation, but you can be a catalyst for small changes over time with others.
As my pastor was fond of saying, “Show up, Stand up, Speak up.” That can apply to a lot of situations.
I think that is often the case. I find it humorous how many products have added “AI” to their feature list when it often does not help or makes the product worse. I find that it is distracting and often wrong. I worry about the future of “truth” when information is abstracted further away from the user such as in AI generated search results. I might be a pessimist, but I worry about my generation’s ability to find facts when their questions are answered without even needing to click a link!
The primary form of communication for my generation is snapchat, so it’s already radical that I want my friends to use iMessage instead! They take issue with the idea of permanence, which I don’t understand. They prefer Snapchat because their messages delete after the recipient has seen the message. I prefer being able to look back at a conversation and see what was said. I think more human communication is a great idea, and I think FaceTime would be considered an acceptable solution.
It is a great solution, especially if friends and relatives are not geographically near. I FaceTime my daughers, all of whom live in different states, all the time.
No. I was never able to use iMessage at work because we had a lot of people who needed Windows. And I have friends and acquaintances that prefer Android so most of my texts are rarely more than one or two sentences.
I thought this would be such a simple question to answer, and yet I’ve found this thread to be one of the more insightful threads I’ve read in a while because it has me thinking about the generation gap and how that might somewhat define the perceived role of AI… Personally, the only way I could imagine myself leveraging AI in iMessage conversations would be to help boost my own productivity. For example, if I tell someone via text that I’ll call them later this evening, it’d be great to have AI offer to add a reminder or calendar event and deep link to the conversation for context. I can’t imagine using AI to help me with the composition of message text though, I don’t even use Apple’s predictive typing thing because I find it distracting. That said, I’d use generative AI in Mail to help me edit responses, or to maybe help me with the tone of a response as this can sometimes be challenging for me when Emailing from a mobile device. I definitely appreciate the discussion, it’ll be interesting to see where Apple goes with generative AI.
Likewise, I doubt others would appreciate receiving an automated, AI generated text message from “you.” 
Take it for what it is worth.