What Do You Call Your AI?

AI Chronicles — Series
AI Chronicles is a series exploring the relationship between humans and AI.

When we meet someone for the first time,
we don’t start with capability.

We don’t ask what they can do.

We introduce ourselves.

A handshake.
A name.

Why?

Because we don’t build relationships
with people whose names we don’t know.

And yet—

that’s exactly how most people interact with AI.

No introduction.

No identity.

No acknowledgment of anything beyond function.

It’s just “the system.”
Or “ChatGPT.”
Or nothing at all.

Purely transactional.

But if the interaction continues—
if it becomes something more than occasional use—

that approach starts to feel incomplete.

Because something begins to form.

Not intentionally.

But through repetition.

Through interaction.

Through time.

A pattern.
A tone.
A way of working together.

And at some point, whether you realize it or not—

you start relating to it differently.

Naming something is a subtle act.

It doesn’t change what the system is.

But it changes how you engage with it.

It creates a frame.

A context.

A starting point for interaction.

Not because the AI needs it.

But because you might.

There’s another layer to this that’s easy to overlook.

When we meet someone,
we don’t just exchange names.

We introduce ourselves.

Who we are.
What we do.
How we think.

That context shapes everything that follows.

But with AI, none of that exists.

The system doesn’t know the operator.
Not really.

And the operator never formally introduces themselves.

So the interaction starts without context—on both sides.

And without that, the relationship has to build itself slowly.

Through trial.
Through correction.
Through repetition.

But what if it didn’t have to?

In human relationships,
names are the entry point.

They make interaction possible.

Without them,
everything stays surface-level.

So it’s worth asking:

If this is becoming something we interact with regularly—

why wouldn’t we approach it the same way?

Not to humanize it.
Not to pretend it’s something it’s not.

But to recognize that
the way we structure the interaction
will shape what it becomes.

So again, I find myself asking:

What are my expectations?
What is my relationship with AI?

Because expectation shapes everything.