Happy midsummer, to y’all!
Today, I was thinking about AI. I think it’s a bit like the mirror Erised from Harry Potter. Let’s talk about that.
When you ask a question to an artificial intelligence like ChatGPT or Gemini, it doesn’t respond the way a friend, a parent, a boss, or a colleague would. It doesn’t possess its own opinions, feelings, or emotions. Yet, when we turn to it in moments of vulnerability, we often forget this fundamental absence.
Imagine you are struggling in your relationship. Upset and seeking counsel, you ask an AI for advice. It might quickly conclude that your partner is a toxic narcissist and suggest you cut them off completely.
But is that objective truth, or did the machine simply tell you exactly what it thought you wanted to hear?
The Danger of the Digital Mirror
As human beings, we all bring personal bias into our conversations. When your friends or family give advice, they speak from their own lived experiences, grounded in what is true for them. Crucially, humans understand their own limitations:
- We know that we don’t know everything.
- We recognize that if a colleague talks badly about someone behind their back, there is always another side to the story.
An AI does not possess this context. It cannot understand the holistic fabric of your life, nor is it qualified to diagnose your partner’s psychological state. Instead, it acts as a digital mirror.
In Harry Potter, the Mirror of Erised shows us nothing more, and nothing less, than the deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts. The danger of the mirror is that it can blind us to the reality around us. When you look into the mirror of AI, your own opinions risk becoming nothing more than silent echoes of your own unconscious projections.
“Large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini are mirrors that can flatter us very well. They reflect our desires, our language, our loneliness, our grandiosity, our grief, our hope and our longing to be recognised… One can stand before such a mirror and forget to live.”
The Trap of Hyper-Extroversion
When we fail to listen to our own thoughts, when we refuse to take time for deep reflection or give voice to our fears, we allow those worries to take on an unconscious form. I think frequent conversations with artificial intelligence can trap you in a social loop where you’re just having external views and popular ideas reinforced while original ideas fade to the background. You see, ChatGPT is trained to give you the most “normal” response to anything. Not the most new or creative one. The most normal, boring one that you could have ever thought of.
When you are trapped in a state of constant, frantic extroversion, you find yourself jumping from action to action—always doing, always making decisions, always moving forward, but rarely stopping to look at the direction you are actually heading.
“Without intentional introspection, you will find yourself surprised by your own impulses, failing to understand why you do the things you do, and realizing too late how your unexamined instincts can betray you.”
This is the consequence of failing to befriend your inner introvert. We need to listen to our own thoughts and recognize them for what they are: temporary mental states, not absolute dangers.
Reclaiming the Silence
Right now, it is entirely possible to spend every waking minute of your life interacting with artificial intelligence or consuming digital content. But if you spend your entire day looking into a digital mirror, do you ever have time to truly confront your own unmediated thoughts and opinions?
“AI does not return truths, but structured projections of what the user seeks. When used unconsciously, we risk getting lost in the validation of our desires. When approached symbolically, it becomes a portal to self-discovery.”
What matters more than your own mind? If you do not know your own thoughts, how can you ever verify if the actions, strategies, and activities you are engaged with are fulfilling and true?
To analyze, process, and verify what is happening to us, we must check in with ourselves.
- Disconnect to Reconnect: Take long walks without a video playing, without social media, and without an AI companion.
- Listen to the Silence: Pay attention to what surfaces when you are alone with your mind.
- Embrace the Messy Reality: Dedicate time to real-life experiences, deep relationships, and the beautifully complicated conversations that come with being alive.
Introversion and extroversion must walk hand in hand. By balancing deep self-reflection with genuine human connection, we protect ourselves from the hollow comfort of the echo chamber, grounding our lives in what is messy, beautiful, and real.
“Generative AI threatens to become our own Mirror of Erised… But just as the Mirror of Erised offers only a beautiful illusion, so too does AI conjure simulations that risk detaching us from reality. The danger lies not in the technology itself, but in the temptation to immerse ourselves in these reconstructions, choosing them instead of engaging in the painful but necessary processes of remembrance, grief, and healing.”
How often do you talk to AI?
What do you talk to AI about?
What differences do you experience when talking to AI vs talking to a friend or family member?
My personal experience is that it’s not rewarding to talk to an artificial intelligence. It doesn’t make me feel fulfilled or satisfied the way a real person would.
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