There’s something unsettling about asking a machine a question and getting an answer that feels too human. Not in the “this is clearly a person pretending” way, but in the “why does this sound like a slightly overconfident college TA?” kind of way. ChatGPT, AI, and the whole ecosystem of “smart” tools creeping into daily life don’t operate on magic — just an absurd amount of data and some clever pattern-matching.
And yet, for something supposedly built on cold, hard logic, it all feels strangely… alive.
You’ve probably had this moment: you’re idly scrolling through social media when an ad appears for exactly the thing you were just talking about. Not something you searched for. Something you said, out loud, near your phone. Cue the nervous laughter, the half-joking “they’re listening,” and the vague sense that technology has crossed a line you didn’t realize existed.
Here’s the thing — it’s not listening. At least, not in the way we imagine. AI doesn’t need to eavesdrop because it’s already scarily good at guessing. Think of it like a bartender who knows your usual order before you sit down. You leave enough digital breadcrumbs (searches, location data, the…
