Save Your Self: Opt Out

from my scratch pad

I’m sure you gathered that “Bring Back the Robot Voice” is less instruction and more thought experiment. What if all the bots in our lives were not permitted to deceive us? What if, instead of attempting to simulate the cadences of human speech, they had to sound inhuman?

Bring Back the Robot Voice

But they don’t have to, and they won’t. No tech company will voluntarily abide by such restraints; in this case, as in so many, we need the power of government to curb the excesses of capitalism.

Good luck to us!

Right now federal government is entirely out of the business of holding business to account — in fact, just the opposite. On the same day New York State passed a law requiring advertisers to alert consumers when they use synthetic performers, the White House issued an executive order threatening to sue states who passed “onerous” AI laws.

Despite this threat, In 2026, legislatures in Massachusetts and New York will both be considering bills that require chatbots to disclose themselves. Doesn’t seem like too much to ask, but most states don’t.¹ Maine does! In Utah, well, a consumer chatbot isn’t allowed to deceive you if you ask it clearly and unambiguously whether it’s human. True story.

Hey, Utahans: Ask! Even if you don’t care, ask. On behalf of all those of us who live in states where chatbots are free to lie when you do ask, please make that clear and unambiguous request.

Everybody else, wherever you have the power to opt out of AI settings you don’t actively want, do it: Opt out.

I know: The onus shouldn’t rest on the consumer or the citizen — the party with the least power — but it does. It usually does, right? Opting out is the step so many of us take when we choose to make something (or be something) from scratch.

Every hand-knitted sweater, every hand-stitched Christmas present, every homemade salad dressing was made by someone opting out of consumer culture.

It’s not just things. Asserting our individuality almost always means opting out of default cultural settings, like swearing on a courtroom Bible or letting your kids have a cell phone or stepping on a scale at the doctor’s office.² There’s no “opt in” for heterosexuality, monogamy, and childrearing; there’s only opt out and risk social disapproval.

Don’t want to trade your labor for money? Think the things you buy shouldn’t be made under duress? Believe humans shouldn’t eat animals? Prefer not to be defined by gender? You may have to go to great lengths to opt out, if you even can.

There’s so much about the ascendance of AI that we’re not getting to decide for ourselves. Each state bill under consideration — “hey, maybe health care companies should tell patients when their doctor is a bot” or “hey, maybe AI companies should stop using private emails to train their LLMs,” — is a reminder of just how much shit these companies are trying to get away with. Do get away with, daily.

So when we have the option to say “no” we should take it. If you think AI tools shouldn’t be duping us — and that we, not tech companies, should get to decide if we want to use their products — opt out. Dig deep into those settings on your search engine or in your email or on your phone, and “uncheck” or “deselect” all of it. Google will tell you how.

I did the “Advanced” option, and I’m not advanced. Super easy.

Opt out.

Ask the voice on the other end of the line whether it’s human. If the answer is no, ask for one. If the answer is yes, but you’re still suspicious, ask it to “say potato.” Reddit tells me that will blow a chatbot’s “mind.”

Try it and report back.

1. This handy AI law tracker lists all the current laws that attempt to hold big tech accountable.

2. Some things should be the default setting. Public education, say, and childhood vaccinations. I’m not opposed to all of it!