Meet AI fanboys, Tom, Dick, and Harry

Tom, Dick, and Harry really love AI and spend a lot of time daily posting comments on LinkedIn telling people about it. Although, their comments are usually written by AI, and the audience doesn't really understand how they relate to the topic.

Let's take a closer look at these three lovely people.

Tom

Tom is the simplest of all: he doesn't have any benefit in promoting AI. He keeps talking about it because he really wants to have something to talk about on social media, and AI seems to be the cool topic these days. Sometimes, he feels like an expert when he posts a comment, and he loves that feeling. He tries to sustain that feeling by commenting more and more.

A typical Tom may keep going on and on about how 98.7% of the project management tasks can be done by AI. Although, he's not using AI like that himself. In fact, he's not really a project manager. To be honest, he's never been involved in any real project. By the way, he doesn't know much about AI either, which makes it really cute.

Toms have been in demand throughout history as perfect cult members and followers. Some firms and individuals cultivate them in bulk and use them directly or rent them out to the highest bidder. Some thought that the information age and the Internet created an undesirable habitat for them, but that was not the case, and they keep growing everywhere.

Dick

Dick was always unhappy with the fact that there were many people who were much more capable and expert than him. Now, he's got the perfect narrative: he keeps telling everyone how AI does everything a perfect expert can do. He loves it, because if so, there won't be a difference between him and a real expert.

While Dicks are super happy with this opportunity, there's one thing that keeps them awake at night: What if someone asks them, "OK, use AI and do for me what the real expert does".

Speaking of that, Dicks are very sensitive and easily get angry when someone brings up a topic that requires any form of expertise; approach them with caution.

Harry

Harry's case is simple: he promotes AI to sell a product or service: software, certificates, consultancy, etc.

Harry feels he's above Tom and Dick because what they do helps him sell more. He's kind toward hard-to-understand comments that Tom and Dick post. He also makes sure he posts enough content to feed Tom and give him something to "like". Harry is the one that creates most of the cliches in this area, and he loves it when he sees people use those cliches.

Harry is not as much of a believer as Tom and Dick are because he's the one who started the whole thing. However, most people see him as the Tom of Toms and Dick of Dicks, as the high priest, the superhero, the savior, the almighty.

Harry knows very well how to jump from one bandwagon to the next, because people who buy his services will sooner or later find out that they don't get the promised value. Harry loves the fact that the public doesn't have a long-term memory to remember his previous claims. The external observers sometimes think that Harry is benefiting a lot, but in reality, he doesn't, because he never has a sustainable path.

Sara

Sara is not in the title of the article because she's really boring: she considers AI as it is, a software tool. A tool that can contribute to some of the things she does, as software has always done. She doesn't believe in magic and prefers to be an expert than a cult member or cult leader.

Contrary to the common belief, there are more Saras in the world than Toms, Dicks, and Harrys. However, when the fanboys are bombarding LinkedIn with their "interesting" ideas, Sara is spending her time doing actual work. That's why you don't see as many comments from Sara as you see from Tom, Dick, and Harry. However, when she posts something every once in a while, Tom and Dick quickly accuse her of being a technophobe or left behind the modern technology. What they fail to understand is that Sara is the only technophile among them; she's just bs‑o‑phob.

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