AI Nagging - Technology Nagging at a Whole New Level

 Almost since the day the Internet became public, we've had nagware. You know what I mean: Software and apps that get you to install on the promise that there is some FREE benefit. But, whether they have any actual usefulness in the free version, they proceed to nag you to upgrade.

In the most benevolent incarnation, these apps have a simple "nag screen" that you bypass every time you open them. For many of us, this is simply the cost of free software. 

But real nagware is much more than one nag screen. It constantly interrupts you. It constantly begs you to upgrade. In other words, the nagging gets in the way of using the software. Many of us choose to uninstall rather than put up with the constant nagging.

Enter AI . . .

Artificial Intelligence is insanely hot. Some might say irrationally hot, given how few actual AI-enabled applications there are. We're probably at the end of the Peak of Inflated Expectations on the Gartner Hype Cycle (see https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle) and we're quickly moving to the Trough of Disillusionment.

For me, a LOT of that disillusionment is the nagging nature of AI chat bots, plugins, and all kinds of "features" I just don't need. These annoyances are filling up my taskbar and the periphery of almost every web site I visit. 

In the 1990's it was, "Do you want fries with that?" Today it's, "Do you want AI with that?" For me - 99% of the time - the answer is NO.

The most annoying is on my phone. Every time there's an update, all the nagging AI turns back on. Personally, I hate predictive text. I know what I want to say. I really do. If you want to offer spell checking, I'll look at that. If you were offering a thesaurus of words that might help me improve my thoughts or better express the full intellectual concept in my head, I might use that.

But what's being offered is the most common next word most commonly used by the most common English-speaking people in North America. It is regression to the mean. It takes all uniqueness that I might have and replaces it with the most average thing anyone has ever said. 

Next up is . . . everything Microsoft. I literally cannot open or use any Microsoft product without having to disable or ignore opportunities for them to up-sell me on technology I don't want. I used to think the EU was going overboard by making Microsoft split up their technology.

Note: I might want AI to help me from time to time. I'm certainly not opposed to it. I do want the option. But I don't want it shoved down my throat like a goose on a feeding tube.

Right now, the state of AI for most users is that it is as annoying pop-up advertisements. I would actually pay money for an app that disabled all offers to add or enable AI to my daily routine.

At this moment in history, I am losing productivity because a noticeable percentage of my work day is spent saying NO to AI!

When it comes to interruption marketing, I have never understood how advertisers came to believe that they could annoy prospects into buying their products and services. In my opinion, that's where we are with AI. First, there's no much "there" there. Second, they feel like they have to push it on me a thousand times in order to get me to jump onboard.

That's not being a good marketing or a good netizen. I want the right to be left alone!

:-)