The Unified Front: Human + AI

The Flood and the Filter Open any feed today and you’ll see it: AI content everywhere. Threads stitched together in seconds. Videos narrated by cloned voices. Blogs that read like a conversation with a robot. There’s so much of it that it all blends into unbearable noise. Amid saturation, something paradoxical occurs. People are drifting back to long-form blogs, raw podcasts, and authentic voices. They want to hear real people with real experiences. That’s because humans have an evolutionary filter. We can smell the BS and separate fluff from substance. Take fashion and music – stupid trends fade or age badly, while fundamental and well-made ones stay. Take dubstep, autotune, bluish-grey eyeshadows, low-rise jeans, thread-like brows, face contouring, big 80s hair, etc. They all had their iconic moments, but once overdone, badly done, and tired, they become “cringe”. Remember people using the Galaxy Notes as a phone? All trends get through the “overdone and rejected” phase: * In the age of consumerism, people took the minimalism culture to the absurd, then it subsided. * NFT craze rose and then nobody ever heard about them again. * Buccal fat removal took over Hollywood, and then everyone realized it was a mistake. * People thought they were destined to be born the opposite sex, then they detransitioned. On and on this cycle goes, but if you look at the history, you’ll see humans filter and reject deranged/harmful ideas over and over. Every single time, humanity regains its bearings. It may take time, but we do. Bullshit AI content will also see its end like all other cringe trends. But this isn’t an article about the end of AI content. Quite the opposite. Recognizing the Tool My late grandmother, a chemistry teacher, had a strange philosophy about cheating. She used to say: if a student went to the trouble of making a cheat sheet, they should at least pass. Why? Because in writing that sheet, they had to wrestle with the material, even if just a little. Effort sparks learning. At uni we used to arrange study groups even when there was no mandatory group work. Each of us would learn parts of the material and teach each other. Rather than struggling with a large volume of text, everyone only had to digest and explain the small part of the whole, and the material gathered in everyone’s head like a puzzle. These were the best days of my student life. A decade later, my aunt, an anatomy teacher, was initially wary of “cheating with the help of ChatGPT.” But what happened day-to-day fascinated her. Students ask ChatGPT to generate exam questions, explain, and drill them on topics. While they use GPT for outright cheating as well, most students just have fun with the material with the help of a friend in their pocket. It might not be the most “orthodox” way of learning, but my aunt says it works. And I believe her. As years go on, methods and tools evolve, which is only natural. Leveraging the Tool The flood of content mentioned in the first section occurs because of the way people use AI. There’s a huge difference between copy-pasting your “exam answers” and engaging with the material via the LLM. How do people use AI? Most people go like this: It’s something else entirely when you put some effort into the communication (any communication, really): Yes, I leveraged AI while writing this article. I’d be stupid not to. And I couldn’t care less about AI content checkers placing this article at “69% AI-generated.” Duck that. Am I a naïve AI enthusiast? So what? I see AI as an ally, a thinking partner, and a knowledgeable friend one touch away. Adapt or Die “Automobiles are dangerous,” coachmen (carriage drivers) said. Of course, they promptly went out of business a few years later. Every major tool has had its panic moment. If you go back into history, you’ll see it as bright as day. * The printing press was supposed to ruin memory. * Calculators were supposed to kill math skills. * The internet (especially Wikipedia Wokipedia ) was supposed to turn students into lazy plagiarists. Now AI carries the same blame. Teachers fear it will flatten originality and hollow out education. But the truth is simpler: tools aren’t threats, they’re multipliers. Quick! Think of 5 ways to use a knife. I bet at least one of them included a lot of blood. But while a knife can hurt, it can also cut potatoes for frying. A knife is a tool. So is AI. Every tool that once sparked fear eventually became indispensable. AI will follow the same path. BUT… Who are you Without Your Shiny Tools? I’m human, and I’m brilliant. We came on top of the “survival of the fittest,” and there’s a reason why. We’re noisy, fallible, sometimes lazy and dumb, other times deep and amazing, but at the end, we’re endlessly adaptive. And AI? Hand in hand with a capable human, it’s the most amazing tool ever invented.