Chatbait and the TikTokification of ChatGPT | Lila Shroff on Rendered by Robots

It would have been a little strange in 2007 if we handed everybody an iPhone and said, okay, you really have to learn this technology. But we also can't pretend students aren't using these tools because everybody sort of is.

Lila Shroff, writer and assistant editor at The Atlantic and recent Stanford graduate, joins Spencer Striker and Alessandra El Chanti to discuss the blurry line between legitimate AI scaffolding and cheating, the dark patterns creeping into chatbots, and what it was like to be a college sophomore when ChatGPT took over.

In this conversation, Lila walks us through her experience at Stanford, where she studied human centered AI and watched the technology explode in real time with tech company headquarters right down the street. She describes how in the early days there was anxiety and trepidation about whether using these tools was appropriate, and how over time it became so normalized that 85 to 90 percent of students are now using them in some form. We explore the steroid era analogy: students who want to do it the old fashioned way feel pressure because everyone around them is using AI to get ahead. Lila makes a sharp observation that whether something counts as cheating is almost a semantic issue now, which depends entirely on context.

We dig into her brilliant Atlantic article on chatbait, her term for the way chatbots append follow up questions at the end of every response. She describes how this creates an infinite conversation dynamic reminiscent of the infinite scroll on TikTok. The core question she raises is when you're talking to Claude or ChatGPT or Gemini, who has the agency, who is in charge of the conversation.

Lila explains the memory versus privacy trade off: on one hand, AI tools are not that useful if they don't remember who you are, it's the 51 First Dates problem of having to reintroduce yourself in every new thread. On the other hand, the idea that your medical records, email exchanges, and conversations with friends are all aggregated in one place raises serious questions.

We discuss the death of the ten blue links and what a natural language browser means for how we navigate the web. Lila shares her perspective as a Gen Z journalist at the beginning of her career: the core of journalism is reporting, talking to people, knocking on doors, uncovering new information, and that's something AI is not well positioned to do. She believes the best writing will be connected to the real world, filtered through the specific lens and experience of a human voice.

We touch on Tillie Norwood, the AI generated actress with Hollywood agents, and whether people would watch a movie starring AI actors. Lila says if she's on Netflix and sees an AI movie next to a human one, she's clicking the human one. But she also notes that if you can't tell the difference, the preference starts to vanish. Looking ahead, how we figure out the friction between reality and the deepfake world will be an important question.

Referenced: "Chat Bait Is Taking Over the Internet" by Lila Shroff, The Atlantic. Clay Shirky on education as changes to long term memory. Stanford's Human Centered AI program. OpenAI's browser and Sora 2. Tillie Norwood, the AI generated actress.

Links:

Lila Shroff's article: theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/09/chatbait-ai-chatgpt-engagement/684300/

Host: spencerstriker.com

About the Series

Rendered by Robots: AI & the Future of Design Edu explores how AI is transforming the way we teach, create, and imagine media production education. It’s a podcast for educators, creators, and students navigating the AI revolution with clear eyes and curious minds.

CREDITS: Creator & Host — Spencer Striker, PhD | Co-Host & Director — Alessandra El Chanti, MFA | Featured Guest — Clay Shirky, Vice Provost for AI and Technology in Education at NYU | Editor, Sound Design & Motion Graphics — Kyle Trueblood | Producer — Adam Sullivan | Camera & Sound — Yunting "Unity" Zhan, Qinbei "Bissy" Li | Project Manager — Aimelyn Geronimo | Special Thanks — Miriam Sherin (Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education); Alumnae Award for Curriculum Innovation (Northwestern University Office of the Provost); Marwan M. Kraidy, PhD (NU-Q Office of the Dean); S. Venus Jin, PhD (Artificial Intelligence and Media Lab | AIM-LAB); Nisar Keshvani (NU-Q Communications and Public Affairs); Rami Al-Badry, Floyd Yarmuth, Ihsan Yahya (NU-Q Production & Digital Media Services) 🔖 #ClayShirky #AIEducation #HigherEd #FutureOfLearning #IdentityFormation #EdTech #GenerativeAI #NYU