A Short Scenario by Ruth Shillair*

I have been followed to many online meetings by AI Assistants like Otter, which want to record or summarise my conversations and meetings. The Assistant – let’s called s/him IT – asks to be admitted to the meeting as if IT was one of the invited participants, but I never knowingly invited IT. Occasionally, IT makes its way in the meeting and I need to ask the moderator to remove IT.

I don’t appreciate this because it is intrusive and not invited and potentially dysfunctional. An IT might leak information from a meeting or record a participant who does not wish to be recorded, for example.[1] I do not yet trust the summary of anything by AI although I might ask questions or use AI for translations or transcriptions. There is even a class action lawsuit over an AI Assistant.[2]

After a conversation around these issues with an MSU colleague, Ruth Shillair, Dr Shillair wrote a short and fun narrative about the travails of AI in meetings, called ‘Drama in the Zoom Room’. Here it is:

Drama in the Zoom Room

by Ruth Shillair*

As the Zoom meeting started, everyone introduced themselves and all was going well. However, there was a mystery guest, an AI assistant that was there to take notes for one of the participants. Seeing an AI in the room causes all sort of dilemmas. Who is collecting the data? Where is it processed?  Who can read the results? Is it under contract with my company? Speaking up to ask the AI to be removed is a quandary. What is someone needs to have it there to help them remember their tasks?

If we speak up it might be embarrassing for whomever arranged this or put them on the spot. If it is already a social norm in this group to have an AI assistant, we might seem paranoid or a Luddite. Instead, we just sit silently and stare at the box with the AI name. There is a new member in the room, one that eliminates a job even as it sits in the corner, taking notes, which might not have ever been taken.

Knowing it is taking notes can dramatically change what people contribute. It is like seeing the camera pan the crowd at a sporting event and the images go up on the Jumbotron. People act differently when they know they are being observed. Sometimes they brag or monopolize the conversation, knowing they will be quoted or seen as a leader. Alternatively, they might be more cautious about what they say. Or not say anything. You can just ask for something to be “off the record” and watch the notetaker stop taking notes. Everything is on the record. Nothing is missing.

At the end of the meeting, everyone is offered a copy of the notes, but they can only access it if they accept the plug-in that embeds itself to all their future meetings. It is almost like the infamous email ILOVEYOU computer worm of the 2000s. Spreading quickly and hard to avoid. The challenge of removing permissions in one’s calendar is daunting, but the appeal of better notes is enticing. When I compare my cryptic human notes to the extensive AI notes it is impressive. The AI looks so much better, so many details, highlights, and lots of bullet points.

Yet, it missed many aspects of the conversation. Humans notice things AI did not. The eyeroll as the director shared news about the upcoming budget cuts, the joy as a person shared the results of their research. All the mental processing we do when taking notes is gone. Knowing the notes will be there for us, it is easier. But we are less engaged. We can mentally check out while nodding in agreement, we don’t worry about focusing as we know we can scan the notes later.

But we don’t.

AI in the Zoom meeting is becoming more normalized, more omnipresent. However, it is not just a presence in Zoom meetings. AI is everywhere and always offering to help. As we are writing emails, writing documents, doing searches, designing reports, it is always just a click away, or even closer. Do we just let it do things for us, the mundane, the repetitive things, or does AI expand its roles overtime.  

Yet, even in these mundane tasks, like answering an email from a co-worker, there is the chance to touch a life with our life. A chance to share words of encouragement and hope, from a human to a human.

That is, unless AI is reading and sorting their emails. 

*Ruth Shillair is an Assistant Professor and Director of MA Graduate Studies, Media & Information in the  College of Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University.

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[1] https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2026/01/is-your-ai-meeting-assistant-an-ethics-violation-waiting-to-happen/

[2] https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/insights/insights/new-lawsuit-highlights-concerns-about-ai-notetakers