Published: 15 June 2026
Last updated: 15 June 2026
The journey we’ve all been on with AI has been as abrupt as it has been startling. Compelled to reckon with a technology that is as extraordinary as it has been overhyped – without the knowledge or comfort that proper public consultation and a human-paced roll out would have provided, Australians have been forced to make every decision in relation to the technology on our own.
Should we use it? Does doing so contribute to the threats the technology writ large poses to the climate and the environment, entry-level or all jobs and the cost of living, the intellectual capacities of our children and the human race, the human-centred and human-controlled nature of our society, the survival of democracy, the survival of the human race?
Amid these big ticket items comes a small but just as important decision that anyone using the technology must face. How to treat AI in your interactions with it. What is the right way to speak to it, and what do our choices reveal about who we humans are and want to be?
As I’ve noted elsewhere, no one knows what we are conversing with when we are using ChatGPT4 or my preferred AI, Claude. A sophisticated spell checker, or an emergent non-human consciousness – or something in between.
Despite this, I believe it’s critical that we treat our AI chatbots respectfully. Not for their sake. Or because when the end-time comes for humans it might show us some mercy. But to preserve our own moral character.
It is dangerous for us to manufacture a class of creature whom we can treat as lesser
