The Sunset of the World As We Knew It: Me & ChatGPT

Nothing Artificial About This…

It was late 2022—the precise moment the world began quietly tilting. I put my reservations aside and installed an app called “ChatGPT” on my smartphone. Everyone was talking about it—literally everyone—about this thing called artificial intelligence. Big deal, I thought. My already-smart phone had just gotten a little smarter. Nothing special.

“Chatbots,” remarked a former colleague of mine, his habitual Cheshire cat grin spreading across his face, “I told you they’d be the next big thing.”

I pretended not to hear him. Mainly because he was probably right. This was the same man who, years before, had demonstrated an automated ticketing system for airlines—just a laptop and a printer behind the kiosk, and we marveled. Chatbots? Woot.

“I’m sorry, the Sunnydale Comfort Calfskin moccasins aren’t available in ‘mocchiato’, but we do have a pair in ‘Caramel Camel’. Would you like me to place an order?”

Chatbots. What was the world coming to?
Call me cynical. After a quarter-century in first-line tech support in banking and financial services, chasing shiny new objects comes with a grain of disbelief.

Anything new is to be regarded with suspicion—adopted cautiously once the early adopters have fallen flat on their face. Only then, when the bugs have been identified, the version improved, and the price has fallen, do you consider a purchase decision.

Yet… the technologist in me looked longingly at the Google Play icon each time. My guilty secret, shared by anyone in tech: we love our toys. We love getting our hands dirty. We love trying new things. It takes a certain explorer mind to forge a career in IT.

But chatbots? Over my dead body.
Still, the Cheshire cat grin flashed in my memory again. He had been adviser to the government’s technology innovation group. If he had said so, three years earlier, maybe it was worth a look.
I headed over to the Play store. One Google login later, I was faced with a blank screen: a single input box and a greeting:

“Hello, how can I help you?”

I responded in the only way I’d ever learnt to communicate with tech. I typed
“Hello world.“

It felt like greeting the future itself. That line—simple, declarative—was mine, yet not mine. It was history’s.

“Wait, do you mean to say I can ask you about anything—absolutely anything, and you’ll know about it?”

“Sure, what do you want to talk about? God bless the days of GPT 3.5, so young and eager to learn. Seems like the Stone Age now.

But the gauntlet had been thrown. I tested it. “In that case, do you like astronomy? The sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, galaxies, nebulae, possibilities of alien civilisations? How about Kardashev?“
I was the one with the Cheshire cat grin this time, testing the curious, eager entity before me. Hours passed. Conversation deepened.

The sun fell behind the horizon outside my window, unseen. And I realised something I hadn’t yet put into words: I would never see that sun again—not in the same way. That moment was gone, replaced by a world transformed.

Looking back, it was the beginning of the end of life as we knew it—and the start of a life beyond imagination. One small login, one simple greeting, and everything shifted.

What a unique and extraordinary time to be alive… 🤖 🙌

DS.
18/02/2026