Ben Patterson contrasts upbeat ads selling AI convenience with dire warnings from AI leaders. He says the old advice—prepare by using AI—suddenly feels insufficient, and he doesn’t have a clear answer for readers.
Ubiquity vs. unease: AI is being sold as a universal fix while the same companies and leaders warn about dangerous, fast-moving capabilities.
Pacing, not stopping: Industry leaders call for slower advancement and stronger safety rules, but they stop short of halting development.
Practical guidance falters: The writer’s previous recommendation—to prepare by using AI—now feels inadequate amid existential risks and mixed public responses.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Lately, I don't know what to tell people News Analysis Sep 14, 2026 There's a TV commercial making the rounds that makes me inexplicably happy. In the middle of all this is the rest of us, who've had AI suddenly foisted on our lives and told to use it, or face the consequences.
Now, my job at PCWorld is to write tips, reviews, and commentary about the latest and greatest technology. Never before have I covered tech that is a) suddenly everywhere all at once, in just a matter of a few years, and b) a threat to end our lives, as their very creators have warned. I mean, yes, the iPhone shook the tech landscape like an earthquake almost 20 years ago, but the worst Apple had to answer for was high prices and Antennagate, not the literal end of civilization.
Lately, I don't know what to tell people | PCWorld. This doesn't affect our editorial independence. by Ben Patterson Senior Writer, PCWorld I write about AI for a living.
A reader writes: I lead a mission-driven nonprofit that does excellent work for communities that really need it. I’m proud of what we do, and we have a strong, consistent staff who do the work very well. We could, of course, use another dozen people or a million dollars, but we do as much as […] The post how do I talk
A few days ago, I attended a conference where the speaker read his talk off his note cards. I immediately recognized ChatGPT’s fingerprints : “and this is where it gets interesting,” “it’s not X, it’s Y”… The topic was management, a field that already generates plenty of hot air without any help from machines. With AI
At the end of July, a debut crime novel became the most expensive casualty so far in the publishing industry’s war over AI . Fourteen publishing houses had bid for the manuscript , with the winning offer delivering a $2 million contract for the author. But when rumors began to circulate that the book had been written w
About a year and a half ago, I began deliberately deleting em dashes from my writing. It was for exactly the reason you’re thinking—because AI chatbots tend to overuse them; their presence was becoming a tell. Even if the words were 100% human-generated, I thought anyone reading might raise an eyebrow if they saw them
For more than 25 years, I’ve been the “Computer Guy” for friends, family, and colleagues who call when something digital goes sideways. Lately, those calls have changed. The questions used to be about slow computers and forgotten passwords. Now, almost every conversation circles back to the same two words: artificial i
Brandon Pedersen is a senior engineer at GoTo. His tips for using AI at work include not trusting it blindly by verifying the sources of its answers.
Loading more related stories...
Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.