Recently, I heard a story about a woman asking Reddit for advice after receiving a text from a guy she had just been on a date with, which was clearly meant for one of his friends. Without going into details, the text referred to her in very inappropriate and sexual terms. When the guy realised his mistake, he sent an effusive apology text for the offence caused. However, his text message, though eloquently written, was clearly AI-generated, so she was now considering whether to break up with him, and well, you can imagine, Redditors had a lot to say!

What’s interesting to me is not that this man used AI to help him write an apology – that’s a whole other blog post. I’m interested in what the situation revealed about the person he actually is, because the woman was now questioning who she had been dating. Was it the sweet, funny, engaging guy she’d spent the evening with? Or was it the lewd, sexist ‘bro’ texting his mate about his latest dating conquest? Which of these ‘characters’ was the real one?

Authenticity is an important aspect of communication, especially when written. Not only do you want your message to land (correctly!), but you also want to build trust with your audience along the way. You want them not only to trust you but also to believe you are indeed who you say you are. Now I appreciate that you may express yourself differently, depending on the audience, but the core of your message and indeed the core of who you are – your values and your purpose – should remain the same regardless. People should never have to doubt or question the person they have been engaging with in any context.

I never found out how the story ended – my guess is that she broke up with him. But there is something from this tale worth reflecting on: do the people in your life, whether personally or professionally, ever have reason to ask which version of you is the real one?