The Best Liar I Know

“Please tell me about Bruce Kasanoff,” I asked ChatGPT. Here’s how the world’s most powerful AI tool responded:

Bruce Kasanoff is a business consultant, speaker, and author based in New York, USA. He has worked with a range of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, helping them to create better relationships with their customers and employees.

Kasanoff is known for his focus on empathy and emotional intelligence in business. He believes that businesses can create more value and achieve greater success by prioritizing these qualities, rather than simply focusing on the bottom line.

Kasanoff has written several books, including "How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk" and "I Am: Escape Distractions, Unlock Your Imagination & Unleash Your Potential." He is also a regular contributor to Forbes and LinkedIn, where he writes about business, leadership, and personal development.

Prior to his consulting career, Kasanoff worked in various roles in the publishing industry, including as a publisher, editor, and writer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Wesleyan University.

Sounds pretty good, right? There are, however, a few errors:

• I’m not a business consultant.

• Don’t live in New York. (I did briefly in 1985-86.)

• Haven’t worked in the customer relations space since 2013.

• Have never had any role in the publishing industry, aside from being a writer.

• I don’t have a Bachelor of Arts.

• No degree in English either.

• While I once gave a speech at Wesleyan University, I never went to school there.

I then asked for more information about me, and this is part of what ChatGPT said:

He is the founder of Kasanoff Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm that helps businesses to create more meaningful and empathetic relationships with their customers and employees.

• An outright lie. No such firm exists. (But it’s not a bad idea, I gotta admit.)

In addition to his work as a consultant and writer, Kasanoff is a sought-after speaker and has given talks at a range of events, including TEDx and the World Business Forum. He also offers workshops and training programs to help individuals and organizations develop their emotional intelligence and empathy skills.

• (Sigh) I haven’t given a TEDx Talk.

• The World Business Forum has published at least one of my articles, but so far has not invited me to speak.

• I’ve never offered a workshop to help anyone develop their emotional intelligence and/or empathy skills.

There’s a reason I used myself as an example today: my depth of knowledge about Bruce Kasanoff is deeper than my knowledge about chemical engineering, geopolitics or the future of humanity. I can tell when ChatGPT is lying about me far better than when it lies about everything else.

Before sending out this issue, I decided to ask ChatGPT one more question, “Anything else of interest about him?”

One thing of interest about Bruce Kasanoff is that he is a co-author of the book "I Am: Why Two Little Words Mean So Much," which was inspired by a chance encounter with a homeless man. The man asked Kasanoff for money, but instead of giving him money, Kasanoff asked him to share his story. The man replied with two words: "I am." Those two words had a profound impact on Kasanoff and inspired him to write a book exploring the power of identity and self-perception.

• The actual title of my book with Amy Blaschka is I Am: Escape Distractions, Unlock Your Imagination & Unleash Your Potential. But GPT’s title is not only funnier, but also better. (Much better, which could take me a long time to explain.)

• I also love the origin story that GPT invented. It’s a complete lie, although there’s probably an alternate Universe somewhere in which that was what happened. In our reality, however, I was meditating when the entire concept of the book came to me in a flash.

Our society loves technology so much that we rush past its many flaws. You would never hire a prolific and proven liar, and yet all the media and many business leaders are talking about is how AI is going to change our lives and perhaps replace many jobs.

I hope we make better decisions about AI than we have about social media, because we really don’t need an even more powerful tool for spreading lies and misinformation.

As an experiment, why don’t you stop by the AI tool and ask it about yourself? Then please come back and share what you learned.