I will never trust an AI to do these 7 things for me
Everywhere you look, there’s some new AI tool promising to make your life easier—from AI assistants that plan your schedule to AI that generates messages for you. But as much as I welcome technology, there are certain things I can’t imagine leaving in the hands of AI tools.
1 Make ethical decisions
Ethics is one of those gray areas where AI, no matter how well programmed, just doesn’t sit well with me. Ethical decisions are not about black and white logic; they include nuance, empathy, and sometimes guts. When faced with a tough choice—whether to bend the rule, put one person’s needs over another’s, or decide what is truly the “right thing to do,” AI lacks the lived experiences and values that help shape those calls.
For example, if I’m deciding between supporting a friend’s difficult decision or asking them to reconsider, the AI will likely look at facts, statistics, or trends. But ethics are deeply personal, often influenced by experiences, personal beliefs and intuitions that come from just being human. It’s not something I can leave up to an algorithm, no matter how well trained it is.
2 Guide my love life
Romance and relationships are deeply personal, often irrational, and full of subtleties that AI cannot understand. Love isn’t just about compatibility metrics or calculated risks—it’s messy, unpredictable, and emotional. While AI can provide general relationship advice based on data or suggest date ideas, it cannot understand the nuances that make each relationship unique. For me, part of love in love is uncertainty and the journey of figuring things out together with someone else, not according to a script or an algorithm.
Imagine trusting AI to help you decide whether to continue dating someone or how to handle a delicate dispute. An algorithm can recognize patterns or offer “standard” advice, but it cannot empathize or know my history with a person or the subtleties of our connection. Love and relationships require self-reflection, compromise, and an understanding of human emotions—all things artificial intelligence lacks.
My love life is something that follows my own experiences and instincts. It’s those human missteps, awkward moments, and unexpected sparks that make relationships memorable, not something I want to distill into a calculated design from a machine.
3 Make parenting decisions
Parenting is one of those fields that is all about intuition, patience and an unbreakable emotional connection. An AI may have access to an endless stream of parenting data and advice, but it can’t really know my child, nor can it understand the countless little details that make each child unique. Every decision I make as a parent, from guiding my child’s behavior to supporting his interests, is based on who he is, not just generalized information.
Consider, for example, a moment when a child is upset over something that might seem trivial to an outsider. AI could suggest standard solutions, but it wouldn’t understand my child’s specific sensitivities or personality quirks. Sometimes the best approach isn’t a logical one – it’s a purely empathic approach where the parent knows when to give space, hug and talk.
4 Give me career advice
Trusting AI for career guidance seems like a step too far. In order for AI to provide useful advice, it needs enough context to understand my specific situation. But in a professional setting, a lot of that information is confidential or personal, not something I want to share with a machine. Giving AI access to my workplace dilemmas, career goals, or interpersonal dynamics in the office feels risky to me—there’s no guarantee that the data will remain private or that it won’t be misused.
For example, if I’m dealing with a difficult situation involving team conflicts or considering a change in my role, AI can offer general advice. But without knowing all the details – and these are details I shouldn’t share with an AI – I doubt it would really understand the nuances.
And even if an AI could somehow process it, it still wouldn’t have the instincts that a good mentor or colleague brings. A machine could suggest a calculated “next step,” but it wouldn’t know the nuances of timing or the people involved.
5 Write personal letters to loved ones
When I write to friends and family, I draw on shared experiences, inside jokes, and little details that only the two of us understand. It’s not something an algorithm can replicate.
Imagine using an AI writing tool to design a birthday letter for a friend. Sure, it could be based on general sentiments like “I hope you have a wonderful year,” but it wouldn’t know the specifics of our friendship or remember the one time we laughed ourselves to tears over a stupid joke. This is one of the reasons why I am skeptical about using AI even for writing emails.
There’s a distinct warmth and authenticity that comes from writing something yourself, knowing that every word reflects your thoughts and feelings, not some machine-generated template.
6 Send a message to my friends as “me”
This feels particularly personal to me. When it comes to staying connected with friends, there’s no way I’d hand over my conversations to an AI. Doing so defeats the whole point of messaging in the first place. At least for me.
To me, having an AI message from my friends is like having someone take my ice cream. I chat with my friends because I enjoy it, not because I have to. If I ever feel like I need AI to chat with a friend, I’ll take that as a sign not to text them, rather than a guide to using AI.
7 Decide when to make a major life change
Big life decisions—changing careers, moving to a new city, or ending a relationship—are fraught with complexities, emotions, and considerations that cannot be reduced to data points. AI may be able to analyze trends, compare results, and show me what others have done in similar situations, but it can’t sense or understand what I really want. These are decisions where I rely heavily on my instincts, values, and insights I’ve gleaned from my own experiences.
Imagine an AI advising someone whether to move to a new city where they don’t know anyone. Sure, it could get data on the cost of living, job prospects, and even the weather, but it wouldn’t understand the emotional aspect (even though it might pretend to) of leaving close friends, family, and familiar places. . Major life choices like moving house involve feelings of excitement, fear, and sometimes homesickness—factors that cannot be calculated or fully understood by a machine. I prefer to weigh the risks and decide for myself.
Artificial intelligence can do a lot and is impressive in many ways. But for some things, the human touch, instincts, and personality have value that AI doesn’t have. It’s not that AI isn’t useful; it’s just that for these deeply personal aspects of life I prefer to keep things human.