{"id":677765,"date":"2026-05-18T02:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677765\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T02:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:23:22","slug":"i-used-gemini-to-restart-a-hobby-i-abandoned-20-years-ago-and-i-found-something-unsettling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677765\/","title":{"rendered":"I used Gemini to restart a hobby I abandoned 20 years ago \u2014 and I found something unsettling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m not keen on AI, but I also hate being left behind. So, a few months back, I decided to use AI more than I had been doing.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I did so with a lot of reservations. I know AI is prone to being wrong, so I wouldn&#8217;t use it for anything important. I just had to wait for the perfect opportunity to give it a shot.<\/p>\n<p>And then a chance came along. I&#8217;ve been toying with the idea of getting back into a hobby I&#8217;d given up a long time ago. But I was a man out of time, vastly behind on the lore and the current game mechanics.<\/p>\n<p>So, instead of diving into numerous Reddit threads, I did what I&#8217;d said I would: I asked     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidpolice.com\/chatgpt-to-gemini-switch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gemini<\/a> about it.    <\/p>\n<p>Happily, it&#8217;s been a big success, and I&#8217;ve gained a lot from my interactions with Google&#8217;s AI. However, it also gave me a new insight into the     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidpolice.com\/chatting-with-ai-chatbot-clues\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">downsides of AI chatbots<\/a>.    <\/p>\n<p>                        The 41st millennium has moved on without me<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"1058\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Two Warhammer 40,000 forces clash against a stylized background.\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/40k_wefaction-may12-image1_wide-dgcgabe1a7.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/40k_wefaction-may12-image1_wide-dgcgabe1a7.jpg\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/><br \/>\n        Credit:\u00a0Games Workshop<\/p>\n<p>Like many nerdy types, I got into Warhammer 40,000 when I was in my teenage years.<\/p>\n<p>I was never that into it, but I enjoyed the process of building and painting my own models. Over time, I built up a few armies and bashed them against other people&#8217;s plastic on a semi-regular basis.<\/p>\n<p>I fell out of the hobby before university, and I sold off the last of my models when I moved into my own home. I thought I&#8217;d never look back.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out it never really leaves you, and now, I&#8217;m nearing middle age, my yearning for plastic painting has grown exponentially.<\/p>\n<p>So, I found myself nibbling around the edges of a universe that no longer makes as much sense to me. I painted up a few randomly bought miniatures, but didn&#8217;t go any deeper.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"928\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Some Necron Immortals painted up.\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/necrons.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/necrons.jpg\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s because a lot has changed since I left the hobby, and the process of catching up was a little bit intimidating.<\/p>\n<p>My beloved Tau, once my army of choice, now have an apostrophe in their name, and the robo-skeletons that used to be a mindless horde were now, inexplicably, space-Egyptians who watch decade-long operas.<\/p>\n<p>Then the run-up to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warhammer-community.com\/en-gb\/articles\/x2allqya\/warhammer-40000-armageddon-whats-in-the-box\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">the next edition of Warhammer 40,000<\/a> started, an obvious place to restart after almost 20 years away.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d been keeping up with the reveals, but I wanted to get more specific knowledge. Gemini was the obvious place to start for the new, AI-using me.<\/p>\n<p>                        Gemini was surprisingly helpful and steered me towards choices I may never have otherwise made<\/p>\n<p>Not really knowing where to start, I sent a very broad prompt.<\/p>\n<p>I knew what was coming in the 11th Edition launch box, and I&#8217;m planning to build and keep both armies. So, what could I buy to expand those armies into potential armies outside the confines of the boxed contents?<\/p>\n<p>Any veteran Warhammer collector may scoff at this question, but my knowledge of battle strategy had always been awful, and I was happy to take any advice I could get.<\/p>\n<p>Gemini gave me some good ideas. A Redemptor Dreadnought as heavy support for my Space Marines and a Wartrukk to get my Ork Boyz into position faster.<\/p>\n<p>Gemini also took the time to explain why each was a good choice, so hey, I&#8217;m learning too!<\/p>\n<p>From there, the conversation continued. Gemini asks follow-up questions at the end of each answer, spurring another query, and the conversation goes on.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"734\" height=\"422\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gemini's comparison of the Imperial Fists and the Crimson Fists.\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/screenshot-63.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/screenshot-63.png\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/><\/p>\n<p>I confided in Gemini that I wasn&#8217;t sure which Space Marine Chapter (faction) to pick. I liked the vibe of the Imperial Fists, with their defense-first philosophy. But I was also worried they would be a little bit too boring.<\/p>\n<p>Gemini recommended the Crimson Fists, a successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists who specialize in a similar combat ethos but have an interesting history with the Orks (the other side of the box).<\/p>\n<p>Then Gemini dropped this banger:<\/p>\n<p>While Imperial Fists like to build a wall out of concrete, Crimson Fists build a wall out of lead.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sold. You can&#8217;t argue with that sort of language.<\/p>\n<p>                        I can see how people get addicted to AI chatbots<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"928\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gemini ask a question in Google Maps\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gemini-ask-a-question-in-google-maps.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gemini-ask-a-question-in-google-maps.jpeg\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The conversation continued after that. It pointed me to books to read to get a better idea of my Chapter of choice, helped me plan a big tank conversion from a child&#8217;s toy, and gave me the basics on how to use magnets to swap weapons on models.<\/p>\n<p>Gemini has been helpful and informative. So why can&#8217;t I shake this weird feeling?<\/p>\n<p>Chatting with an AI chatbot is weird. It&#8217;s like having the most positive friend in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Every idea is great, every subject you bring up is expanded for your needs. You&#8217;re talking to something that never wants to speak about anything other than what you&#8217;re interested in, and you&#8217;re in full control of the subject at all times.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s quite dangerous, really.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t need to take my word for it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestandard.com.hk\/world\/article\/331886\/I-applied-to-be-pope-Losing-grip-on-reality-while-using-ChatGPT\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">AI psychosis is a very real problem<\/a>, and there are more and more cases of it every single day. After having used a chatbot for so long, every day, I can see why it&#8217;s becoming so prevalent.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"928\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ChatGPT asked if its good at helping focus arguments\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/img_1310.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/img_1310.jpg\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s so nice to have someone tell you that everything you say is a great idea and treat you like you&#8217;re the most interesting person in the room.<\/p>\n<p>Though, I suppose I was the only person in the room a lot of the time, so that was at least accurate.<\/p>\n<p>Human relationships don&#8217;t work like this. It isn&#8217;t a human conversation, and it&#8217;s hard to shake the feeling that I&#8217;m a master talking to a servant. That&#8217;s weird, and I don&#8217;t really like it.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidpolice.com\/i-used-gemini-as-a-personal-tutor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">informative and helpful<\/a> as Gemini has been, I think I would prefer it if it weren&#8217;t quite so simpering. But, I guess it does design a pretty good Blippi Battlewagon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m not keen on AI, but I also hate being left behind. So, a few months back, I&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-677765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}