GET OUT OF THE GOLDILOCKS ZONE!

Recently, a woman emailed me saying she loved my book about Alzheimer’s, but thought it needed ‘more attention.’ She said she was a marketer and had a 6-step plan that would boost “Kissing Tomatoes” in the ratings. She even quoted passages from the book along with snippets of actual reviews from my readers. I was flattered and blown away by her attention to detail. Too good to be true? You bet.

After exchanging a few emails, my soi-disant marketer said her services would cost $600. Considering what she promised, that seemed reasonable, but something felt ‘off.’ Her highly detailed responses were a little too perfect. For every point I raised, she immediately offered several replies. My head spun. Finally, I sent one to my daughter to get her take. “Oh, Mom,” she wrote back, “She’s definitely AI.” She was right.

In the old days, you only had to worry about real people scamming you. Now you have to watch out for phony bots. No wonder folks fall in love with their robots. AI is immensely compelling and infinitely persistent. Even after I stopped corresponding, she followed up with three more emails to convince me she was real! However, when she said she ‘didn’t have time’ to FaceTime, I knew she also didn’t have a face.

Yesterday, I received an ad from WisprFlow. The pitch? “Turn your voice into clean, professional text you can send the moment you stop talking. (Clearly, they don’t know me too well.) “Speak the way you think. Change your mind mid-sentence. Flow strips the filler, fixes the grammar and gives you text that reads like you spent five minutes writing it.” Five minutes? I spend hours getting words right.

In “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” everything had to be just so but any fool who believes that’s possible is deluded. Earth is known as the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ in the Universe because it has the right amount of water and light for human life, but the operative word is ‘human.’ Perfection is neither real nor human. Ask any artist. It’s the smudges, inconsistencies and space that give a canvas character and beauty.

The same holds true for your face. Whether you have a big nose, floppy ears, or a chipped tooth, it’s perfect as is. Mine is riddled with freckles and wrinkles, but that’s who I am: someone who’s lived an exuberant life outdoors. I don’t want to look like some puffed-up balloon or sound like Tolstoy. I want to look and sound like ME! Do you think giraffes fret over having too many spots? AI might mimic perfect but don’t fall for it. Stand up for flaws and fault lines, and you won’t be fooled by flattery or fakery.