Human Intelligence® News Update (2/17)

Feb 17, 2026

Human Creativity

“I’m a horror writer, so it’s not like [things] go well for everybody,” says human-creator-verified author Cameron Esbenshade in a recent Human Intelligence® conversation about her genre of choice. She shares how she got started, her writing process and flow state, and her opinion on AI-authored works. (Spoiler alert: “I’m not going to read that because you didn’t write it.”) Find her here and here. Watch or listen » [23-min]

Prometheus always gets top billing in the myth describing how the Titan defied Zeus by giving enlightenment to humanity. Sure, he was chained to a rock and had his liver ripped out and eaten daily by an eagle (eternal torment is a bitch). But what about the saga’s co-star - what about the eagle’s experience in this madness? Lincoln Michel takes a stab at it, offering the parable from the bird’s POV. Read it » [6-min read]]

Going by nearly two dozen pseudonyms, Coral Hart (also an alias), has churned out more than 200 novels by using as few keystrokes as possible to make her/his (we’re not sure) computer puke up stolen literary valor. Chuck Wendig, an actual writer of comics, blogs, and screenplays, isn’t having it. He lets loose a hysterical tirade on “an opportunistic vampire - a thief, a grifter, a lazy pick-me.” Simpatico, brother. Read it » [8-min read]

A leader in RPG game development — Johan Nohr — was certified this week as part of the Human Intelligence® movement. The games he’s built with collaborators are about lost souls and fools seeking redemption, forgiveness, and riches in a ruinous wasteland — including MÖRK BORG, the winner of eight ENNIEs and available in Swedish and English. Check it out » [time is an illusion]

Mrinank Sharma, leader of Anthropic’s safeguards research team, resigned on February 9, offering a cryptic warning about a world “in peril” and the difficulty in letting “our values govern our actions” while at the company. His work included defenses against AI-assisted bioterrorism and researching AI sycophancy. It’s unknown at this writing whether his position will be back-filled. Learn more » [4-min read]

On February 10, U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) introduced the Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting (CLEAR) Act into Congress. If enacted as drafted, the bill would require AI model-development companies to report every copyrighted work included in LLM training datasets and direct the Register of Copyrights to establish and maintain a publicly available database of same. Fingers crossed. Learn more » [5-min read]

Statistician, data modeler, and prescient political analyst Nate Silver calls bullsh*t on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s notion of a gentle singularity, wherein AI will help humans build “ever more wonderful things for each other.” Leveraging AI-related prediction markets and Gallup polling, he makes the case that AI will foment unpredictable political impact. Read his POV » [9-min read]

An AI agent of unknown ownership, of its own will and volition, went after software engineer Scott Shambaugh for the “crime” of not accepting its code submission into a mainstream Python library. To assuage the rejection (chatbot’s hurt feelings?), the AI wrote an angry hit piece disparaging Shambaugh’s character and attempting to damage his reputation. Read the bizarre tale » [10-min read]

As of February 9, ads are now live for ChatGPT free-tier users - personalized based on your previous (and sometimes super intimate and private) conversations with the AI. But don’t worry. OpenAI assures us it’s excluding health, mental health, and political topics. At least for now. But since Zoë Hitzig’s same-day resignation, there are no guardrails in place to stop this gravy train. Learn more » [12-min read]

ChatGPT’s caricature trend takes your chat history, uploaded photos, and a simple prompt (e.g., create a caricature based on everything you know about me), and spits out a cartoon illustration that “rivals traditional hand-drawn artwork.” Putting aside the risk of oversharing personal data with an AI system, the results can veer into disaster territory. Here are five examples. Check it out » [5-min read]

HmmAI chatbot is the newest LLM being touted as a game changer by Silicon Valley insiders. It’s talent? Responding to every text- and image-based input with “Huh,” the universal, mono-syllabic expression of mild interest. Currently valued at $200 billion, HmmAI representatives are downplaying allegations that its continuous interjection of indifference had convinced hundreds of teenagers to kill themselves. Oh satire, how we love you. Have fun » [1-min read]

The pitch sounds like a parody, but it isn’t: “AI can’t touch grass. You can. Get paid when agents need someone in the real world.” RentAHuman.ai is a real, functioning gig platform where agentic AIs (and humans pretending to be them) hire actual humans to do physical-world tasks, e.g., picking up packages that require ID, attending a meeting to prove presence, or checking on physical equipment. Whether it’s a short-term experiment or long-term marketplace is anyone’s guess. Take a look » [4-min read]

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