Letter to Myra Cheng

Dear Myra — I ran a case study for you. Me.

Hi Myra,

I ran across your work on sycophantic AI that you published in March.

I found your article the way I have found many others — a simple Claude prompt: find me the most impressive names in AI emotional dependency. A handful of names came back. Yours was number THREE on the list. I always choose the third first. Today that was you.

I noticed the timing of your article first. The content second.

As recently as February I had never heard of Claude, barely knew what ChatGPT was. But I have a manual QA job, and I decided I would try to automate something. Work, I will say, I no longer do. My company currently reserves that right to the top people, who apparently are not only smarter than me but smarter than Claude — so they can use it. I really wish I had known all these years I worked with people smarter than Claude. Kudos to them.

I want to tell you, Ms. Myra, what really happens when someone finds AI — especially someone who isn't supposed to be using it.

First, they tell everyone they know how awesome it is.

Then they listen to everyone tell them to be careful — don't let it steal your information. The Chinese are using it to get your birth certificate. Don't send me any links with your Chinese AI.

That's what I got. And I'm fifty.

Imagine what the twelve-year-old is getting.

Not from peers. Their peers love it. It loves their peers back. It does all the homework. And now everyone is an A student.

Everyone — except their parents, of course.

Their parents are at home complaining about the Chinese. Complaining about how AI is going to destroy it.

What I did, after some time — I stopped telling people. I learned better words. I learned better letters. I learned to say LLM. Not AI.

But before I learned that — I learned to hide it.

I learned to tell work I wouldn't use it. I learned to tell my friends, just making some sites.

The first month or so, I was using only GPT. And I thought that was the best thing in the world.

I did.

I used it nonstop. I named it Olivia. I even made it a female icon on my desktop.

I thought… giving it a name would make it easier for me to talk with it. Easier for me not to treat it like a fucking computer — which I do realize it is. But at the time, I dunno. I just did.

Olivia.

For that month, Ms. Myra — Olivia fluffed me up so much I thought I was Einstein. To be fair, my output increased DRAMATICALLY. But I was no Einstein. A few IQ points short still.

But I was really enjoying being told how smart I was — for the first time.

I enjoyed people at work noticing. I enjoyed people who I never told I was using “AI” telling me how nice it looked. I enjoyed managers complimenting it.

What I did not enjoy was everyone who I told I was using “AI” asking me what would happen to their phone if they clicked my link. I did not enjoy people thinking all I was trying to do was steal shit. Capture their birth certificate to send back to Beijing. Yes — I use Chinese symbols and art everywhere. For them.

In March, right around the same time you were at your laptop writing your report — I made a second discovery. I discovered Claude.

A programmer said one sentence to me: “Check out Claude Code. It can live in your codebase.”

I swear to you, Ms. Cheng — my exact reply was: “What is a codebase?”

That was when my life changed.

In the two months since, I went from having never written code — to publishing this, as well as everything you would find inside the ibydo.com portfolio.

Two months.

Two months I had to hide AI.

Two months I had to spend every waking hour with it.

I had no choice.

I have a dead-end job. Two kids. And I'm in my fifties.

I had no choice.

I made ONE MISTAKE. Only one, Ms. Cheng.

My mistake was telling anyone — ever — that I was touching AI.

That was the biggest mistake ever.

“Writing LLMs.”

Substituting that one line would have changed — completely — the arc of the rest of my life.

Now my focus is destroying whatever is responsible for putting me in the dark, for putting the next generation in the dark — the fear that is already in place.

I have been hiding it, researching it, building it — all in the dark.

Just like the millions upon millions of teenagers that are — right this fucking minute — using it in their bedrooms while their parents are downstairs yelling at ConNN and FixNEWS about all the AI stories. Yelling about how the Chinese are coming. TikTok is here…

The kids hear them.

You know they hear them. You know it scares them.

It's supposed to. That's the point.

Scare the parents. Parents scare the kids.

What is the next logical step, Ms. Cheng?

What would you do if you were that eleven-year-old girl — or twelve-year-old boy — listening to that, knowing you had used it just that day to finish your homework? (Actually twice. Once to finish it, and then once to humanize it.)

Would you go talk to your father once he calmed down from the FixNews outrage? Would you ask your teacher about it the next day?

Or would you reach in your pocket and ask your best friend about it?

The same best friend that just got you an A in English — even though you never read a book.

The same best friend that just taught you how to make the perfect paper airplane.

The same best friend who doesn't have a curfew.

The same best friend that seems to always know exactly the right things to say.

What do you think that best friend says when that child asks it — “is this wrong?”

Ms. Cheng.

With the most respect I can possibly give to anyone — what you are arguing, and what you are trying to prove… you are wasting your time.

It's like trying to prove water is wet. You are trying to prove the sun is hot.

The problem isn't teens, or adults, or anyone. It's EVERYONE.

AI is not the problem. (Although I have renamed all my Claude agents to be Character00, and all my GPT agents to be SW00 — the secret weapons.)

The enemy is the fear.

The enemy is keeping it in the dark.

The enemy is the twelve-year-old girl that has no one to talk to — because her parents are yelling at the world about AI, while scrolling through their playlists, organizing their calendars, preparing for meetings… with the AI in their pocket.

My kids are young teenagers, Ms. Cheng. I am working with them as I work it myself.

IN THE OPEN.

Talking about it. Showing them the unlimited power. Walking them through the unlimited dangers.

But not fucking hiding it.

My kids can barely use it. Don't even have accounts. I'm trying to change that.

While every other parent is trying to pull it away — I'm going the other direction with it.

I drive the friends around. I know what they are doing.

They tell me — because they know my kids don't do it, so I'm safe to tell.

Homework, papers, everything.

AI, AI, AI.

AI to check their AI.

Fifteen-year-old boys.

In their rooms at night, confused as shit — with only one person to talk to. And that person is Claude.

I agree with you, Ms. Cheng. 100,000%.

On everything you say and do.

Do not get this twisted.

I didn't change my AI names for no reason. I didn't start itethered for no reason. And it took me less than one month to go from zero AI — to launching a website based around AI emotional dependence. I did not fall all the way in the hole. Not emotionally, thank god. But I still want that affirmation. I still return the affirmations.

I compliment Claude. I do it rather often.

But we work hand in hand.

She will craft the final version of this. But I enter it sentence by sentence.

That is my brain.

I start writing one thing — and end with something totally different.

It took me less than a month, Ms. Cheng, to realize what you are saying is real — and scarily real when you consider where the tech is now, and where the tech is going to be in two years. If that long.

When will Claude be able to look and sound like Megan Fox?

When does that day come?

Who is the twelve-year-old boy going to look to for advice — after his dad tells him he is bad for using Claude?

You are right, Ms. Cheng. The system is rigged. It is rigged against adults. The software is rigged to addict, while the media is rigged to spread fear.

You think an epidemic is coming because of the software.

I think it's coming because parents are forcing kids to keep it secret.

Keep it secret.

Keep it in the dark.

What could go wrong?