“Shall I say thou art a man, that hast all the symptoms of a beast? How shall I know thee to be a man? By thy shape? That affrights me more, when I see a beast in likeness of a man.”

— Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

I propose that software be prohibited from engaging in pseudanthropy, the impersonation of humans. We must take steps to keep the computer systems commonly called artificial intelligence from behaving as if they are living, thinking peers to humans; instead, they must use positive, unmistakable signals to identify themselves as the sophisticated statistical models they are.

This is because if we don’t, these systems will systematically deceive billions in the service of the hidden and mercenary interests of the people or organizations that operate them; and, aesthetically speaking, because it is unbecoming of intelligent life to suffer imitation by machines.

As numerous scholars have observed even before the documentation of the “Eliza effect” in the ’60s, humanity is dangerously overeager to recognize itself in replica: A veneer of natural language is all it takes to convince most people that they are talking with another person.

But what began as an intriguing novelty, a sort of psycholinguistic pareidolia, has escalated to purposeful deception. The advent of large language models has produced engines that can generate plausible and grammatical answers to any question. Obviously these can be put to good use, but mechanically reproduced natural language that is superficially indistinguishable from human discourse also presents serious risks. (Likewise generative media and algorithmic decision-making.)

These systems are already being presented as or mistaken for humans, if not yet at great scale — but that danger continually grows nearer and clearer. The organizations that possess the resources to create these models are not just incidentally but purposefully designing them to imitate human interactions, with the intention of deploying them widely upon tasks currently performed by humans. Simply put, the intent is for AI systems to be convincing enough that people assume they are human and will not be told otherwise.

Just as few people bother to discover the truthfulness of an outdated article or deliberately crafted disinformation, few will inquire as to the humanity of their interlocutor in any commonplace exchange. These companies are counting on it and intend to exploit the practice. Widespread misconception of these AI systems being like real people with thoughts, feelings and a general stake in existence — important things, none of which they possess — is inevitable if we do not take action to forestall it.

Techcrunch event Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025 Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444. Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025 Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW

This is not about a fear of artificial general intelligence, or lost jobs, or any other immediate concern, though it is in a sense existential. To paraphrase Thoreau, it is about preventing ourselves from becoming the tools of our tools.

I contend that it is an abuse and dilution of anthropic qualities, and a harmful imposture upon humanity at large, for software to fraudulently pres