When AI seems to know you better than you know yourself

I was at my clinic the other day and asked an AI assistant about the differential diagnosis of a rash in a child. A routine question.

The response came back clear and sensible. And then it added: “Are you asking about one of your patients, or one of your grandchildren?”

I was taken aback. Because it was right, I have grandchildren. And it remembered that I have grandchildren.

That moment pointed to something new. Not just smarter AI, but a fundamentally different kind of relationship – one that feels, unsettlingly, like being known.

A machine that knows you

At the end of last year, ChatGPT presented me with a summary of my year, 909 chat conversations, and three recurring themes it had identified unprompted – building AI tools for general practice, teaching and writing about planetary health and creative time with family.

Then it went further.

It offered a visual portrait, rendered in pixel art...