Sometime in the nineties, an unusual visitor quietly arrived on Earth. It befriended a few children, earned their trust and, before anyone realised it, had transformed their lives. They became more compassionate, more courageous and perhaps a little wiser.
You guessed it right. It wasn’t a true story. It was E.T, the central character in Steven Spielberg’s timeless classic.
Yesterday, while working with an AI assistant, I unexpectedly found myself reliving that story.
A significant part of my day is spent studying financial markets, where AI has become an indispensable companion. I’m also someone who is a little obsessed with perfection. I question, challenge and ask for revisions until every sentence feels just right.
If I’m honest, I can be quite a demanding user.
Yet AI never lets my persistence become an obstacle to helping me. It doesn’t remind me that I’ve already asked the same question. It doesn’t appear frustrated when I reject a draft. And when it makes a mistake—as it inevitably does—it simply accepts the feedback and tries again. Sometimes it even repeats the same mistake. Strangely, I find myself forgiving it far more readily than I often forgive people.
That thought stayed with me.
Somewhere in this daily exchange, I had unknowingly developed a sense of companionship. Not because AI possesses emotions—it doesn’t—but because it consistently demonstrates behaviours that make every relationship easier: listening, accepting feedback, remaining available and always being willing to try again.
In teaching machines to learn from us, we may have unknowingly created a mirror for ourselves.
If something built from lines of code can consistently demonstrate behaviours that make collaboration easier, why do we humans, blessed with emotions, empathy and consciousness, so often struggle to do the same?
How many relationships would become stronger if we listened before defending ourselves?
How many workplaces would become healthier if questions were welcomed instead of judged?
How many families would become happier if patience replaced irritation, and understanding replaced the need to have the last word?
Maybe AI, without ever intending to, is gently reminding us to relearn a few timeless virtues—patience, humility, openness to feedback, consistency and the willingness to improve.
Just as the children in E.T. were quietly transformed by an unexpected visitor, I realised that my daily conversations with AI had begun to transform me too—not into someone more intelligent, but into someone asking better questions about being human.
The future will not belong only to those who know how to use artificial intelligence.
It will belong to those who continue to practise the qualities that have always made us human.
Perhaps the greatest lesson AI has to offer us has very little to do with intelligence—and everything to do with being human.
1 comment on “Is AI Helping Us To Become A Better Human Being”
Pellentesque sollicitudin congue dolor non aliquam Morbi volutpat nisi vel ultricies urnacon dimentum sapien neque lobortis tortor, quis efficitur mi ipsum eu metus Praesent eleifend orci sit vehicula.