Warning: Is AI monkeying around in your garden?

Once upon a time, a kindly king announced a party for all his citizens. A gardener who tended the king’s fantastical garden wanted to join in holiday celebrations.

He loved his job and the garden, but he had a duty of care to the young plants. Now, in the king’s garden, lived a tribe of energetic monkeys.

The gardener thought to himself Why not ask the monkeys to take care of the plants?

So, he called over the Chef Monkey and his troop.

“You have been given a wonderful home here, in the king’s garden,” said the gardener. “You play all day, eat the finest fruits, and don’t have a care in the world. My friends are celebrating in the city today, and I wish to join them. Could you help me water the young trees while I am away?”

“Oh, yes! We would be glad to do that,” said the Chef of the Monkeys. "But how do we know when each tree has water?”

“Pull up each young tree and look at the length of its roots,” said the gardener. “Those plants with long roots need a lot of water but give only a little water to those with short roots.”

The Chef Monkey picked up the watering pot.

“Remember,” said the gardener. “Check the roots and give each tree plenty of water…but not too much.”

And off the gardener went.

While the gardener partied, the well-meaning monkeys followed his instructions, word by word.

When the gardener returned from the celebration the next day, he couldn't believe what he found. While the monkeys swung cheerfully from branch to branch, all the young saplings lay lifeless, their exposed roots withered in the sun.

The gardener realized his big mistake. Yes, the monkeys were intelligent, well-meaning and energetic. They could follow instructions or prompts… literally.

But they could never understand the nuances of caring for trees without his careful guidance.

Like that gardener, I’ve discovered that AI tools don’t always understand the consequences of their actions.

Using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and other AI tools is like enlisting a troop of monkeys. They’ll happily follow your instructions, no matter what the outputs look like. And they’re often happily and confidently wrong.

Like those monkeys confidently destroying the garden, AI tools operate with dangerous certainty. The next time you use AI, try asking it ‘Are you sure about that?’

Then, watch the large language learning model second-guess itself with responses like, “You’re right to question me…”

AI doesn’t understand the nuances of creative work. It can forage your garden of ideas and solve problems, but put it in charge, and you’ll end up in a garden full of dead plants.

I use AI for my newsletter business as a creative partner. I don't put it in charge though as we know how that'd work out.

This Easter weekend, I've put together an Email Mastery bundle. It contains AI tools I use every day for repurposing my newsletter, writing Substack notes and creating high-quality lead magnets. These are just a few of the use cases I've created for AI..

​Check out the deets.