Human Intelligence® News Update (2/24)

Feb 24, 2026

Human Creativity

Spanning nearly three decades, Jane Friedman’s publishing expertise is regularly featured in media outlets such as the New York Times, Wired, Fox News, and BBC. The prolific publishing educator, blogger, and author sat down with Human Intelligence® to discuss it all - from how to serve your audience and find the right platform to (of course) her perspective on and approach to AI, both for writers and publishers. Watch or listen » [26-min]

In 2024/5, agentic AI was a fever-pitch dream - lots of promises and sci-fi-level capabilities that rivaled any middling-good Star Trek episode (choose your preferred era). By 2025/6, the far-fetched dream gave way to holy-sh*t reality. And the pushback began. GitHub guru Brittany Ellich addresses this from the tech industry POV, elucidating how glue work is the new and critical human skill for the AI epoch. Learn what it is » [15-min]

Per a new study by neuroscientist Erin Clabough, the fifteen-ish minutes that many parents spend reading to their little ones before bed delivers a hefty dose of “brain practice,” which fosters increased empathy, creativity, self-control, and problem-solving skills. The best part? These results happen even if the kid isn’t asked to contemplate a character’s feelings. Reading truly is fundamental. Learn more » [8-min]

Since its discovery in 1960, a 300,000-year-old skull from Greece had defied science - it looked human, but not quite. As of February 2026, bona fide human curiosity, ingenuity, and perseverance solved the puzzle and possibly discovered another missing link in the homo sapiens chain. Behold Homo heidelbergensis, an ancestor that shared Europe with Neanderthals for more than 100,000 years. Cool, right? Check it out » [7-min]

In what amounts to a survey of the battlefield, TIME spoke to an expansive array of AI skeptics - nine Americans with diverse ideologies and professions who, nonetheless, share a mission to stop (or at least slow down) AI’s infiltration into almost every aspect of our lives. It’s a fascinating read underscoring human unity among people who seemingly would never link arms on any issue. Read their stories » [24-min]

That’s the throughline of a new UP Magazine essay that succinctly unpacks 10 hypotheses related to the question “will AI replace writers in 2026?” Despite its focus on AI in the classroom, the piece is relevant to writers of every age in comparing and contrasting AI’s role versus human intelligence and expertise. Find out who they think wins in the end. Read it » [9-min]

The Kindle Unlimited scam is easy, argues novelist Lincoln Michel: Open a chatbot, type in a prompt for a new “novel,” get a fully formed AI-generated manuscript spewed out in under 45 minutes, and self-publish it in the KU store. Voila, ~~slop-based~~ financial prosperity! Not only is this gross, he argues, the increasingly prevalent grift is choking our crumbling literary institutions in waves of AI garbage. Read his suggestions for surfing through the ruins. [18-min]

Pit your what’s-my-cat-thinking knowledge against its AI counterpart in this Pictionary-style puzzler from TED Games. The game is simple: Guess what word or phrase Professor Purring (the AI cat) is thinking by examining AI-generated clues. The benefit is deeper: According to TED, it offers an opportunity to learn how AI systems interpret or misinterpret your prompts. Try it » [time spent is in your hands]

A new study by Dr. Lucy Osler, human-AI relations expert at University of Exeter, argues that AI systems do far more than hallucinate at us. Our increased and routine reliance on them to “help us think” results in, for many people, hallucinating with them. Says Osler, “the combination of technological authority and social affirmation creates an ideal environment for delusions to not merely persist, but to flourish.” Learn more » [4-min]

For hundreds (thousands?) of years, customer-centric marketing meant one thing: resonate with your target patrons. That they were human was assumed. No more. With the deluge of no-click browser results, brands must curry favor with a non-human “influencer”: the chatbot. Yet even after spending enormous cycles “educating” them, LLMs may still deliver crap that effectively - and without much reprieve - tarnishes the brand. Read on » [7-min]

The race to get AI to market has raised the risk of a Hindenburg-style disaster that shatters global confidence in the technology, Michael Wooldridge, a professor of AI at Oxford University, has warned. Scenarios posited include a deadly software update for self-driving cars and an AI hack that grounds global airlines (there are more). Ways Wooldridge, “there are all sorts of ways AI could very publicly go wrong.” Learn more » [5-min]

As a follow-on to last week’s News Roundup, Wired tech writer Reece Rogers tried RentAHuman.ai, a gig platform where agentic AIs hire actual humans to do real-world physical tasks. His conclusion? A bot-central extension of the AI hype machine with sketchy motivations. Which might be fine, as long as they pay his invoices. At least for now. Read his report » [4-min]

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