Reading a friend's email, I click the Reply button, and without asking, it writes a reply for me. Thus, if I want to speak for myself first I have to delete the message it created, signed with my name, w/o permission. #
Here's a screen shot with a red arrow pointing to the AI's writing. #
I do my own writing, always, and forever. I'm not a Luddite, btw -- if you read my blog I try tech and I use it if it fits. I'm looking for new things tech can do. But this time I was forced to use something I never wanted to use. That disgusts me. How dare the machine think it can impersonate me. #
But it gets worse. They buried the opt-out settings, and they don't actually turn anything off. I asked ChatGPT how to do it. It showed me where the settings are, I turned them off, saved changes, reloaded the page, and the same suggestion is there. It's still speaking for me. #
Now they certainly haven't rolled this feature out to journalists, because the news would be full of rage. Journalists, like other literate people, generally have the basic ability to speak for themselves. And journalists use a pulpit that Google is probably still a tiny bit scared of. #
Also, it's hard to come up with an example you can share publicly because it only does this with replies to emails from people you know. I tried it with spam-like messages and there it is willing to let you speak for yourself. #
This raises a philosophical question for Google and its AI bot. Of what use are users? #
Last update: Monday November 10, 2025; 12:11 PM EST.
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)
