Stop the validation-vending machine

My grandfather called me over to show me a ChatGPT-generated extolling of his achievements, and it made me angry and sad.

Sad because he's been showing it to everyone, like a little boy, but the fact that ChatGPT gasses anyone up and tells them they're a genius just for the sake of user-retention means that it minimises his achievements, if anything. People will think that he lacks validation from his colleagues and peers and so is seeking validation from the machine. When in actuality he has had human validation aplenty, it's just never enough for his egotism.

Angry because this is a man who should be smarter than this. He was smart enough to get scholarships and have a career in academia. Smart enough to come up with original research. If he wasn't retired, his students would be AI-generating their assignments, and he wouldn't be slurping its slop right now. He's old enough that he doesn't have to care about the environmental resources being absolutely drained and laid to waste every time he feeds his ego. It's I who has to care, I who will have to face the future. When he expresses affection for me, I think about how he doesn't care enough for the future I have to face for me to believe it. His affection is another expression of his egotism, because I am part of what he considers his legacy.