Critical Thinking in the Age of AI

When Did Humans Stop Being the Default? The Coming 'Organic Label' for Human Content

Critical Thinking in the Age of AI

Show Notes

In this episode, I walk through the cultural reckoning that's already begun: A Japanese author wins a prestigious literary prize, then reveals 5% was ChatGPT-generated, sparking a crisis about what "using AI" even means Sam Altman (OpenAI's CEO) is building iris-scanning technology to verify human identity because he knows what's coming The Authors Guild is racing to create "human-made" labels for books But here's the problem: How do we define "human-made" when AI is in our spell-checkers, our research tools, our editing software, our creative process? At what percentage does something stop being yours? At what point in the process does AI involvement "count"? And who gets to decide? These aren't hypothetical questions. These are the standards being set right now—in awards committees, publishing houses, galleries, and platforms. The defaults being established today will shape what gets valued, compensated, and trusted for decades. This episode isn't about being pro-AI or anti-AI, especially now that AI is everywhere and embedded. It's about being intentional. Because this shift is happening whether we're ready or not, and we get to decide what we value in the transition. I want to hear your thoughts: Should human-made content carry a premium? Would you pay attention to a "human-made" label? If you discovered something you loved was AI-generated, would that change how you feel about it? Let's figure this out together.

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AI for Humanists: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/ai-resource-learning-guide Check out my Bookshop curated reading lists: https://shaeomonijo.substack.com/p/reading-lists

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