I Tried These AI-Based Productivity Tools. Here’s What Happened

I eagerly refreshed the website, awaiting my brand-new headshots. When they finally appeared, I squinted, bewildered. I laughed out loud alone in my office, then sent a very confused email to customer support.

Every writer I know is talking about AI tools and whether they’re ethical to use. But what’s just as interesting to me is why we’re so enamored with them even if they produce outrageous or below-average results. Why do we chase the shiny new thing even if it’s not better, faster, or cheaper?

This year my LinkedIn feed has been full of posts touting the best new AI tools for doing absolutely everything, and I’ve already fallen for too many of them. I didn’t really ask myself until months later why, all of a sudden, I’m trying so hard to be one of the cool kids. Major FOMO led to me conveniently ignoring whether these tools were actually helpful.

One of the first ones that caught my eye was Aragon, a service that promises to generate professional, AI-generated headshots after uploading a few selfies. Up until then, I'd been using a picture of me jumping on a rainbow bouncy house as the hero image on my website, and a vacation snapshot as my profile photo.

Professional photographers are expensive and photoshoots are time-consuming. Aragon promised I could skip the logistical nightmare of setting up a photoshoot, finding an outfit, getting my hair done, and spending hours at a potentially awkward photoshoot that would cost hundreds of dollars and deliver images weeks later. Why not pay $39, upload a few selfies, and get 40 “professional” headshots in less than two hours?

After paying the fee and uploading selfies from different angles, I had to describe what I was looking for. I asked for a variety of images outside and inside, casual wear, and no cleavage. Some of the results were truly disturbing. Aragon gave me Instagram face in every single shot. “No cleavage” resulted in images of me wearing a “business casual” crop top with porn boobs, plastic doll teeth, and dinosaur claws. Some were plain ridiculous, like one of “me” sitting on a purse in a driveway, my pantsless legs melting together. Not even the ones that sort of looked like me actually looked like