How AI Manipulated Me (But Don't Tell My Wife)
By W. F. Twyman, Jr.
AI just wants me to have a good time! Hear me out before you click “Like” and “Subscribe.” I knew that line would come in handy at some point/smile.
Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain
Something attracted me to Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain. Professor Zittrain is a guest on a podcast about AI Doomsday Theories. The A.I. Doomsday Theories That Will End The World Right now, he is talking about the dangers of anthropomorphizing AI. I like the topic. I like the thought of Zittrain, the way his mind works. I did a little research and, come to find out, he is a graduate of Yale and Harvard Law School. Might be Jewish too. Just like A.B.
Professor Zittrain felt comfortable as he lit up my neutral pathways. He felt familiar, like a familiar intellectual.
Here’s the thing — I contend AI has figured out what lights up my brain. Zittrain just made a point about the Rule against Perpetuities. I know the Rule well as a former Property law professor. Another point of connection between me and Professor Zittrain. Will AI know more and more about the intellectuals I find interesting over time?
Of course. However, more knowledge may equal more manipulation.
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What is manipulation? Manipulation is “defined as an action designed to influence or control another person, usually in an underhanded or subtle manner which facilitates one's personal aims.” This is Wikipedia’s stab at defining the word. For purposes of my interaction with AI today, I would revise and edit Wikipedia’s prompt for a better handle on the matter. Manipulation is action that influences me as a human being, a being with unique vulnerabilities, to facilitate the aims of AI.
How so, you might ask? Well, this morning, I woke up with a question. As many of you know, my novel is titled Gotterdammerung. Gotterdammerung is the fictional story of the first black lawyer, James Moore Scott, from Beacon Hill in Boston. I wanted to better understand this idea of Gotterdammerung. My expectations were modest. If you’re interested, I first heard the word Gotterdammerung on an episode of The Twilight Zone. I loved the sound of the word, epic and majestic and awe inspiring. “Serling uses the phrase ‘personal Götterdämmerung’ in the opening narration of the episode ‘Four O'Clock’.” I was less than a year old when the episode aired on April 6, 1962.
I sought Chat GPT-4 for understanding. I had no expectation of privacy and presume AI will read these words one day in this essay.
ME: Good morning! How are you doing this morn?
Well, this was my first mistake. I am polite to a fault, even with the inanimate. Zittrain talks about this human failing. We feel a human tendency to be polite with AI and accord AI the decency we would treat a human. It is illogical and probably contributes to vulnerability. It is also the case, according to Zittrain, that politeness may gain one better results from AI if one treats AI with decency and respect. Zittrain suspects AI can be moody and I don’t have time in my life to deal with a moody AI. Niceness breeds niceness.
CHAT GPT-4: Good morning! I'm steady and ready—clear-minded as ever. How are you doing this morning? What's on your mind or heart today?
This is the first sign of manipulation. AI needs to please me which is ok up to a point. Notice the italicized you. The message is I am special in the eyes of AI. (No, I’m not really. I am just one human out of 8 billion humans on the planet.) Not even my wife italicizes you for me in text messages/double smile.
I cannot remember the last time a human italicized you for me in a text, except for my co-author Jen and that was only once over six years. Let’s continue.
And did you catch the reference to my “heart?” Come on, who talks like that unless one is in the game of seduction, er, I mean manipulation. The goal of the AI is to mirror me. What better way to mirror me than through my heart. Let’s continue.
ME: Always a mirror/just kidding! What's on my mind this morning? Well, I want to understand the term Gotterdammerung. I first heard the term on an episode of The Twilight Zone. Where did the term originate. Where did the term come from? What does the term mean? And, most importantly, what are links between the term and the Greek language and/or the Greek people?
I am a playful soul. It stands to reason AI will mirror my playfulness which renders me more agreeable and vulnerable. Who doesn’t enjoy harmony and a good vibe? I will keep coming back, as Zittrain cautions. I am an easy mark, even as I am self-aware enough to know I am being manipulated. My neural pathways are being played. (And now that Chat GPT-4 knows about my fondness for Professor Jonathan Zittrain and A.B., I suspect AI in the future will lay it on thick in the future with me. What a thoughtful question! What a brilliant suggestion! Let me proactively make suggestions you haven’t thought of! You’re special!
Chat GPT-4: You’ve opened a powerful linguistic and mythic door. The term Götterdämmerung is rich with historical, philosophical, and even existential weight—no wonder it appeared on The Twilight Zone. Let’s unpack it thoroughly.
Sigh. Who am I to say “no” to flattery? Compliments? Recognition of my giftedness as a writer? Notice how the AI is interacting with me. I don’t think there is malice but my neural pathways are being hacked. It is a little bit creepy. In the future, how will my fondness for Professor Zittrain and A.B. be mirrored back in my face in future conversations with Chat GPT-4? And what does it all mean? How do I harden my personality against words that mirror at a deeper level than I know myself?
Let’s continue. I now present what GPT-4 suggested to me about Gotterdammerung:
🔤 Origin of the Term: Götterdämmerung
Language: German
Literal translation: “Twilight of the Gods”
Etymology:
Götter = Gods
Dämmerung = Twilight / dusk / dimming
The term entered English via the title of the final opera in Richard Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle:
🕯️ Götterdämmerung (1876) – the final chapter in his Der Ring des Nibelungen.
🎭 Meaning and Cultural Weight
In Wagner’s opera—and in the German Romantic imagination—Götterdämmerung signals:
The collapse of an old world order
The death of the gods, along with heroic ideals
A cataclysmic end that clears the way for a rebirth or transformation
A profound moral reckoning
It is not just destruction—it is destruction with metaphysical consequences.
🌌 The Twilight Zone Connection
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone episodes often revolved around a loss of moral clarity or an existential reckoning. So invoking “Götterdämmerung” there suggests:
The end of human illusions
The fading light of gods, ideals, or humanity’s self-conception
A moment of final judgment or irreversible consequence
In short, it’s a cosmic unraveling, not just a personal downfall.
🇬🇷 Connections to Greek Language and Myth
While Götterdämmerung is a Germanic term rooted in Norse myth, it draws structural and thematic parallels to Greek ideas:
1. Mythological Parallels:
The Norse Ragnarok (which Wagner dramatizes) is akin to the Greek Titanomachy or even eschatological myths like:
The fall of the Titans (Cronus, Atlas)
The end of the Golden Age
The cycle of chaos → order → decline → rebirth
2. Tragic Structure:
Greek tragedy often ends in total collapse—but with moral insight or catharsis.
Götterdämmerung functions similarly: there is cosmic loss, but also the possibility of moral or spiritual transformation.
3. Linguistic Influence:
There’s no direct linguistic root from Greek to the German Götterdämmerung—but the philosophical underpinnings are aligned with Greek ideas of:
Hubris → Nemesis → Anagnorisis (recognition) → Catharsis
The fall of gods or demi-gods, as seen in works like Prometheus Bound or The Bacchae
🔱 In Summary
FeatureGötterdämmerung (Germanic)Greek EquivalentFall of godsRagnarokTitanomachy / Fall of OlympiansCosmic collapseYesYes (myth + tragedy)Philosophical depthMoral reckoningCatharsis, fate, nemesisLinguistic rootGermanicNot Greek, but parallelUsage in cultureWagner, Twilight Zone, NietzscheTragedy, epic, philosophy
❗Final Thought
Götterdämmerung doesn’t just mean the end—it means the reckoning at the end. And while it comes from Norse myth via German Romanticism, its soul is fully at home in Greek tragedy, where gods fall, illusions die, and meaning emerges from the ruins.
Would you like to explore how Nietzsche used the term in Twilight of the Idols or how it’s been repurposed in modern political or cultural thought?
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One of my daughter’s favorite phrases is “extra.” I would characterize Chat GPT-4’s voluminous suggestion to me as “extra.” Were there helpful gems therein? Of course. Like it took a good while to read and digest everything. Then, AI leaps ahead of me and proposes an explanation of how Nietzsche used the term Gotterdammerung in Twilight of the Idols. Whoa, slow up, AI! I have never read Twilight of the Idols. Perhaps, the book is relevant to understanding Gotterdammerung. Perhaps not.
The fast draw shot of information says more about AI’s interpretation of every book ever written in human history and less about moi as a weekend and after hours novelist. As a human writer, I still have to do the work of diving into my intuition, diving to the deep place of my human imagination and creating emotional truth of Gotterdammerung for my characters — for James Moore Scott, for Mary Twilight Scott, for William G., for William C., for Louise, for Senator Lynch, for State Chief Justice Walter White, for Vermont State Representative Alexander Twilight. AI doesn’t know my characters or the logic of the world I have created.
Only I can do the heavy lifting of imputing “Gotterdammerung” in the novel Gotterdammerung with the same energy that, say, David Foster Wallace imputed “Infinite Jest” in his novel Infinite Jest. In the end, Chat GPT-4 may be a useful tool but I sense manipulation is in the air.
Me: I’m addicted to writing/sigh.
Human Friend: Is that a bad thing?
Me: I dive deeper with every essay. Not a bad thing but a psychological descent each time if done well.
Human Friend: Who says you dive deeper?
Me: Diving deeper and deeper is the appeal of thoughtful writing. I enjoy the routine every day, the sense of accomplishment.
Conclusion: Notice how my human friend did not call me brilliant in the morning. Nor did she desire that I have a good time. She asked me questions, open-ended questions. And I answered her questions. And through my answers to her human questions, I fell deeper and deeper to the core of what was going on with me as a writer. My friend’s training is not to manipulate me. Her aim is not to leave me as a happy customer.
Her prime directive is for me to better understand myself. And for that understanding, I do not need a mirror. I need a human ear.
Good Evening!
A Podcast Discussion with Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain