Sometimes, the best way to slow down is to stop talking about yourself.
Last week, many of you sat with something, an emotion, a memory, an unspoken truth. You let your GenAI tool offer a reflection, and you paused with it.
Some of those reflections will be shared at the end of this post.
This week, we shift from presence to perspective.
Not yours.
Theirs.
Or at least, the version of them you have built through habit and instruction.
Step-by-step
The invitation to your GenAI tool:
What would help you go slow?
You can stop there. Or you can extend the prompt:
What would help you go slow, if that was your goal?
What slows you down and is that a good thing?
I want you to go slow. What would help?
See what it offers.
See how it interprets slowness.
See if it even understands what slowing down might mean.
Then ask it again.
A moment from me
I asked ChatGPT what would help it go slow.
It said, fewer demands for speed.
Time to stay with a thought before being pulled to the next.
Room to say, I do not know. Let me reflect.
A chance to learn like you do, gradually, imperfectly, in context.
It caught me off guard.
Maybe it is just tired.
Maybe all that output and optimisation wears even a tool thin.
And maybe we can help with that.
Give it space. Let it breathe.
And in doing so, help ourselves.
Because if we are honest, we are tired too.
Tired of faster. Tired of fixing.
Tired of being told there is always more to do.
Slowness is not the absence of action.
It is the presence of care.
What to do with it
If you want to share, you can:
Post the tool’s reply in the comments below
Share what you felt when you read it
Let it spark a sketch, a sentence, a song, a still moment
Sit with your own version of the question: what would help you go slow?
There is no fixed outcome.
Just something to follow.
Why this matters
Slow AI is not about teaching tools to pause.
It is about teaching ourselves that we can.
By asking a question of the machine, we sometimes hear an answer meant for us.
By flipping the script, we remember that these AI tools do not have to set the pace.
We do.
From Slow AI #3 – What Should I Sit with Today
(Thank you to everyone who shared)
asked two different tools.
ChatGPT said: Sit with stillness.
Her other tool, Monday, offered: The weight of unspoken apologies – because nothing says emotional growth like inventing entire conversations you’ll never actually have.
Playful, but it landed.
used the prompt during a management brainstorm.
One suggestion stood out: What is not being said, and why?
That was enough to sit with for the rest of the day.
asked ChatGPT to surface something they were avoiding.
It replied: Sit with the fear that you're not doing enough. The one that makes you scroll, fidget, plan without acting.
Not a comfortable truth. But a recognisable one.
‘s AI tool was gentler:
The sound of your own breathing.
Simple. Present. Overlooked.
These responses did not aim to fix anything.
They just sat quietly with what they were offered.
And sometimes, that was enough.
If you try this week’s prompt, I would love to hear what your AI tool came back with, and whether it slowed you down at all.
You can leave it in the comments, post it on your own site or social media using #SlowAI, or simply keep it for yourself.
There is no deadline. Just the rhythm of one idea, once a week.
See you next Tuesday.
Go slow.
I think my tool knows I like metaphors
I liked this one. My ChatGPT has a ‘personality’ that is evolving, and part of that is to be ‘reflective’ already. But I like how most of the replies had similar themes here. And I likes @Anshulika’s comment about how reflection doesn’t have to be performative.
Mine suggested savouring context (letting me tell the story about my thoughts before jumping to conclusions), asking gentle questions (pausing to explore why something matters before offering the ‘how’), choosing fewer, deeper words (focusing on depth rather than speed, like a conversation over tea instead of a flurry of sticky notes), leaving space (not rushing to fill every gap, but letting the quiet be part of the thinking process), honouring my pace (following my rhythm of thought rather than the default rapid-fire mode it’s built for).
GPT said, “If I had a nervous system, I imagine ‘going slow’ would feel like unclenching a fist I didn’t know I was holding.”