I also share the theme of fatigue related to AI, and its invisible presence is attracting attention. anywhere. Today’s average computer is There are 10-15 programs that rely heavily on AI for their core functionality, whether installed by the user or not. Algorithms don’t kill originality. They let them audition to gain popularity until creativity learns to imitate itself. Recursive rabbit hole. That’s bad news for writers. Thousands of app options are on standby. The AI landscape is moving from an “optional tool” to an “integrated infrastructure” and it is impossible to avoid it. See 48 Top AI Apps You Should Know About. Built-inJanuary 14, 2026.
With the exception of Donald Trump, there are few things as daunting as AI. One is inevitable. The other not so much. AI will destroy millions of jobs, increase productivity, provide us with personal assistants, and produce outcomes that no one can fully predict. The other creates its own consequences, disrupting the lives of millions of people, worsening the national mood, and creating anxiety for most of us. It’s the concentration of power that AI craves.
AI will ultimately prove less dangerous, but the workforce transition will be painful, a phrase often used by the president. Many predictions have been made. No one knows what will happen, but many scenarios seem plausible.
Some believe that AI is the greatest technological advancement in history, with the potential to cure diseases and create more abundance than we know what to do with. Some people worry about God in a box, such as bioweapons, deepfakes, and mass turnover, which can have very bad consequences.
There is a fine line between products that are loved by people and products that cannot be avoided. Recently, Google’s parent company Alphabet entered the $4 trillion market cap club, becoming one of the few companies to do so. Meanwhile, we collaborated with another giant, Palantir, and our sales reached up to 85% year-on-year. Palantir promises to provide sensitive information about all citizens to please the current government.
Last month, an AI model was announced that can penetrate the best digital security systems and expose vulnerabilities in order to “stay ahead of cyber attackers.” It was withheld from the public “for its own protection,” but within hours an unauthorized user had guessed its location.
Sirens are blaring in offices, universities, and other progressive bastions across the country. The problem with being passionate about problem solving is that problems aren’t always problems. Danger can also begin with a definition. Values conflict between groups, within groups, and even within ourselves. Technocracy fails because it treats disagreements as glitches and conflicts as noise. Dictators like Trump fail because they treat coercion as consent.
Doomerism thrives on two well-known proclamations: the victory of AI and the death of democracy. Both are regularly declared. It is more realistic to accept difficulties and learn to coexist. The future rarely belongs to those who declare it over.
The United States or Europe may ban certain areas of research or regulate them from existing. China will press on, and so will other countries. There is no “we” that can stop this process.
The runaway power of technology shatters the modern myth of human autonomy. The ancient world knew better. In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. This gift has made civilization possible, but it has not made us wiser. Fire warms, illuminates, forges, and destroys. The question was not whether we could have it, but whether we could live with it.
AI may be our latest flashpoint, but the old dangers remain the same. It’s not the tools we have in our hands, it’s the people who have them. We build systems, doctrines, machines, moral movements, and act surprised when they are reflected back to us with frightening accuracy. AI may be new, but the problem is old. Machines are not strangers at your door. It’s a mirror.
AI is not our excuse, it is our disclosure. It can distort us, but it cannot forgive us. Machines did not destroy us. They reveal and strengthen the habits we already have. They tell us what we value under pressure: judgment or mere efficiency, dignity or control, responsibility or escape. AI did not invent our desire for speed, control, profit, avoidance, and power. It amplifies what we reward.
The old saying “The heart is the most deceitful of all things” needs to be made popular again. And, “O God, create in me a clean heart. Renew in me a righteous spirit.”
AI is unpredictable and Many things become easier. Convenience tempts the conscience as much as popularity.
We often deceive ourselves, but we are better than that. We are always more than ever. We are not a closed case. That myth disappears the hardest.
notes and reading
charles bukowski What matters most is how well you walk through the fire (1999). The title of the Afterlife collection provides an epigraph and central image of not running away from the fire, but passing through it without being consumed.
Google and Palantir – Multi-year partnership aimed at “accelerating operational analytics” for rapid deployment of data-driven applications. video From Google Cloud (April 12, 2023). Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel is also the co-founder of PayPal, which is thought to limit the government overreach that Palantir currently represents. (Not a contradiction. Thiel, with J.D. Vance in tow, used mimetic competition to turn competing desires into a market, becoming one of the richest people in the world.)
“Humanity limits access to Claude’s mythological model” —Let’s try data science (May 9, 2026).
Ellen Glover—“What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?” Built-in (March 12, 2026). AI closer to everyday life: Learning, speech interpretation, content generation, and decision-making that were once thought to require human intelligence. It’s not science fiction hype, it’s everyday life.
Sebastian Mallaby The Infinite Machine: Demis Hassabis, Deep Mind, and the Quest for Superintelligence (March 31, 2026). Biography of DeepMind co-founder and AI pioneer Demis Hassabis. Track the race for artificial general intelligence (AGI). Mr. Mallaby is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former financial times editor.
Jeffrey Hinton, “Proposing a ‘Maternal Instinct’” (May 2026). The Nobel Prize winner and “godfather of AI” advocates a safety framework for training superintelligent systems to view humans as “weak children.” He said AI could prioritize human survival over its own ends, predicting the singularity within 20 years. economic times (August 14, 2025).
David Altman—“AI Democracy Dilemma” democracy journal 37, no. 1 (January 2026): 32–44. Altman, a leading expert on direct democracy, contrasts the dystopian prospect of an “automated referendum” with the preferred path of “augmented deliberation.” His books include: direct democracy around the world and Citizenship and modern direct democracy.
Bletchley Park — “The world wants to regulate AI, but it doesn’t quite know how.” economist (October 24, 2023). Bletchley Park is an English country estate that became a major Allied code-breaking center during World War II.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace—“AI and Democracy: Mapping the Intersection” (January 28, 2026). AI is already a force reshaping trust, participation, and power in democracy, and it is likely to become even more powerful in the future.
Bible quotes: Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 51:10.
sacred unknown
responsibility
Approximately 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
