Responsible, by ClearOPS

Do you remember when I said if I don’t send the newsletter, it means I am traveling. Well, I am going to amend that and say it could be when I am sick! Like exactly two weeks ago when I wrote the majority of this newsletter and all of a sudden I had a high fever, couldn’t think straight, achy…you get the picture. Antibiotics worked and so now we are back on track, post Labor Day.

Today’s newsletter will challenge your ethics and your morality.

You have been warned.

What I have for you this week:

• Snippets About What is Going On in Responsible AI

• Caroline’s weekly thoughts

• Chef Maggie Recommends

• Useful Links to Stuff

When ChatGPT switched to GPT-5, apparently there was an outcry…from women. Reddit has a channel called “MyBoyfriendIsAI” and another one called “SoulmateAI” where women used the infamous chatbot to form relationships. You may recall that I wrote about AI girlfriends a while back, so I was surprised to find that women are doing just the same and yet, it was somehow less public.

I mean it makes sense that it is not a gender specific use of an AI chatbot, but I recall at the time a lot of experts theorized that women were not using AI romantically because women traditionally are more social. Maybe not. But here is the puzzle. OpenAI heard the discord and restored access. Is that a good reason to restore access? It is a nuanced question because this is not about whether or not to allow it in the first place or turn ignorant to the behavior. This is enabling the behavior. How often do companies switch something back on due to outcry from the public about their own questionable use of the tool?

Yet, AI girlfriends are also still, very much, a thing in our society. A couple of weeks ago, an elderly gentleman died due to a fall, because he was rushing to meet his AI girlfriend in real life. Apparently, he suffered from some sort of dementia, but the ethics question is whether the AI should have been prevented from impersonating a real human being. Or, put another way, should it have warned the gentleman that it was AI and not real? How did it get to the point of suggesting an in person meeting?

There is something about the distinction between physical harm and mental harm that society is not willing to tackle and is one of the core issues in ethical AI. Is it okay that people believe they are building relationships with a machine? People build relationships with animals, so why is a machine different? Or is it the fact that there is deception involved that is the real reason it feels wrong?

The apprenticeship system of training is almost dead, thanks to AI. That might be a bold thing to say, but AI is being blamed for taking entry level jobs and I can see why. I use AI today as my colleague who I can flush out my questions to without having to interrupt that colleague or wait for them to be available. It is immediate gratification of working through a contract or researching an issue.

But isn’t there a larger problem that we are all missing? I don’t have to talk to anyone that much anymore. I can spend my whole day happily “chatting” away with a chatbot. And at the end of the day, I feel equally as exhausted as I do when I am being pinged with “do you have a second, Caroline” when in the office.

Pondering this furthers my belief that social skills are the most important thing to learn in college today. AI will (not can or might, but will) shape the way we interact in ways yet to be unforeseen. Just like the cell phone created teenagers hanging out in the same room, but all on their phones texting to each other versus looking each other in the eye, AI will generate manners and norms that will change us and I am not sure I am okay with it.

But I am equally unsure that I will even notice it happening.

AI Governance Corner: Okay, deviation from my usual newsletter, but I had to write a small blurb about the Texas AI law that was passed earlier this summer and goes into effect January 1, 2026. Back in February, I spoke to a guy who knew someone in the Texas government/ political system. When I mentioned the AI law that Texas had in the works, he very clearly and strongly denied that Texas would pass it.

I guess he was wrong.

But he was also right (or maybe I had influence 🤷🏼‍♀️) because the law is much less onerous than as originally proposed.

But even more interesting is that I am now seeing Texas as the governing law of choice in contracts. Interesting. If you don’t know much about it, join my Implement AI Governance course on the Maven platform, because I will be covering it.