ChatGPT is taking over our lives, whether we like it or not. For the longest time, I never saw words such as resilience, purpose and mission-driven being used the way they are today. Another word I am noticing more frequently is “realm,” apart from my personal favourite “foster,” which has suddenly become the buzzword on LinkedIn in the name of thought leadership.

Apparently, the word “realm” seeped into my subconscious without me realising it. Maybe it was my love for Narnia (from my younger days) or the Disney cartoons I had grown up watching; or maybe it’s the years I spent waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out. (Yes, back in the day, one had to wait for a Harry Potter book.)

After being bombarded with AI-generated content that is good at recycling and regurgitating, I thought that maybe we humans could learn a thing or two about going green.

Anyway, I had to make a presentation on my six-month plan, and it was all going well — you could tell that from the way very few people in the office were checking their phones, there was very little of fidgeting and some genuinely interesting questions were posed. So, while responding to one of the questions, I just blurted out the word I hated. As I began, “In the realm of marketing…,” I was gobsmacked. Where did that come from? I had never used that word — in my writing or speech.

I couldn’t find a secret cupboard to Narnia to disappear into. So I told myself: keep going, finish your reply and hopefully no one has noticed.

In our quest for the ‘right’ word, which AI would promptly offer, we risk losing the quirks that make us who we are, the insider jokes that only two people get and the jingles that have stood the test of time. 

But at the end, the CEO of the organisation said, “In the realm of marketing, how are you going to incorporate everything we have discussed today?”

At that moment, I wanted to disappear straight into Azkaban.

That (Freudian?) slip taught me how our subconscious absorbs stuff.

Today, as we are bombarded with AI language, I am sure it will affect the way we think as well as speak and write. Like it or not.

In our quest for the ‘right’ word, which AI will promptly offer, we risk losing the quirks that make us who we are, the inside jokes that only two people get and the jingles that have stood the test of time.

Maybe this is just the world we live in, and we must embrace the way AI is changing our lives. In our pursuit of doing everything faster and being more productive, we’re losing a little of what makes us human: our idiosyncrasies.

Asma Rao, a communications specialist, is the founder of Prizm, a strategic communications firm