Human Intelligence® News Update (4/15)
Humans create. AI imitates. Welcome to your weekly roundup about human creativity in the age of AI.
Human Creativity
ETHICAL TOWN CRIER - Provocative Thinker Takes on the Tech Bros
“If anything I publish online … gets sucked into [LLM] data sets and offered to everyone as free remix fodder, then why should I bother making anything?” So asks Johan Cedmar-Brandstedt, visual storyteller (Radioactive Cannibal Vikings from Hell, anyone?) and GenAI critic, who sat down with Human Intelligence® to discuss the future of AI and human creativity. The conversation spans AI ideology; copyright infringement, lawsuits, and data provenance; and how to protect human creators going forward. Watch or listen » [45 min]
THE CASE FOR HUMANS - What If We’re Not Being Replaced by AI?
There’s no shortage of AI doomsayers painting the end of human relevance as we know it. But technologist Jay Desmarais reframes this POV, asking instead, “What if [AI is] the most significant expansion of human creative potential in history?” Read his thoughts on shifting the dominant paradigm from AI takes everything to AI gives us everything we need to become what we’ve always had the potential to be. That is, it doesn’t replace humans. It unleashes us. See if you agree » [14 min]
ANALOG SOLUTION - College Professor Compels Students to Use Typewriters
Cornell University’s German language instructor Grit Matthias Phelps has turned to old-fashioned manual typewriters to not only curb AI-written work (no screens, no chatbots, no delete keys) but to foster critical thinking skills through focused, distraction-free engagement. And it’s working. For example, sophomore Ratchaphon Lertdamrongwong says, “I was forced to actually think about the problem on my own instead of delegating to AI or Google search.” (BTW, Phelps’ ratemyprofessors score is 4.6/5.) Learn more » [3 min]
ENHANCED MUSICIAN PROTECTION - TikTok Offers Audio Recognition Technology
TikTok, in partnership with automatic content recognition platform ACRCloud, has added a new protection process for musicians who use its SoundOn platform to distribute their music. Called Derivative Works Detection, the service enables music distributors to identify copyrighted tracks, even when they’ve been significantly altered through speed or pitch shifting. Learn more » [2 min]
Human VS Robot
FROM REJECTION TO REFUSAL - It’s Open Season on AI Pushback
Eleven states are currently considering moratoriums on data center construction, joining a wave of successful efforts to ban, reject, or outright shut down AI in direct and robust ways. Brian Merchant of Blood in the Machine unpacks the most recent instances where workers and consumers have taken a stand against AI technology - Wikipedia, gaming studios, publishers, educators, and more. Luddites, rejoice! Read » [17 min]
CANCELLED - Meta Removes Attorney Advertisements
Starting on April 9, about two weeks after Meta and YouTube were found negligent in a landmark California case about social media addiction, Meta began stripping its platforms - Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, and Meta’s Audience Network - of ads from attorneys seeking clients who claim to have been harmed by social media while under the age of 18. “We’re actively defending ourselves against these lawsuits and removing ads that attempt to recruit plaintiffs for them,” a Meta spokesperson said. Learn more » [6 min]
VICTIM JUSTICE - TAKE IT DOWN Act’s 1st Conviction
An Ohio man, 37-year-old James Strahler II, became the first person convicted under the TAKE IT DOWN Act after pleading guilty to creating and sharing real and AI-generated explicit images of at least 10 victims without their consent. Using more than 24 AI platforms and over 100 AI models on his phone, Strahler not only created potentially thousands of non-consensual images of women and children, he continued to make them after his arrest. Learn more » [5 min]
OPENAI LIABILITY - AI as an Accomplice?
According to TechCrunch, two recent, back-to-back lawsuits against OpenAI collide directly with the company’s legislative strategy, encapsulated by Illinois State Bill 3444, which would shield AI labs from liability even in cases involving mass deaths or catastrophic financial harm. First up, Florida’s Attorney General is investigating OpenAI for potential harm to minors, national security threats, and a possible link to a Florida State University shooting. Second, a San Francisco County stalking victim claims ChatGPT enabled her abuser’s actions. Read the Florida case [3-min] | Read the California case [7 min]
Artificial “Intelligence” & Other Myths
UNDER THE HOOD - A Primer on How AI Agents Work
Even if you have a modicum of software knowledge about how AI Agents work, they can still feel a bit nebulous. To help out, Bold Metrics cofounder and CTO Morgan Linton offers this (mostly) non-technical explanation about what they are and how they do what they do, walking through the process from set-up to action. Code snippets are included, if that’s your jam. Learn more » [8 min]
COURT CRISIS - The Insidious & Growing Problem of Fabricated AI Citations
According to the most comprehensive database that tracks AI hallucinations in global court filings, there were 1,227 documented instances (and counting!) of wholly fabricated legal citations submitted to courts worldwide by lawyers and pro se litigants who trusted (and did not verify) AI output. And those are only the cases that were caught - the actual incidence is most certainly higher. This article lays out the anatomy of a hallucination, what the data shows (spoiler alert: it’s mostly a small-firm problem), and a recommended path forward. Learn more » [19 min]
BIXONIMANIA - The Nonexistent Disease AI Chatbots Warned People About
Between March 15, 2024 and April 10, 2026, if you typed “sore, itchy eyes and discolored eyelids” into a range of popular chatbots and asked what was wrong with you, you might have gotten an odd diagnosis: bixonimania. What’s that? It’s the invention of Almira Osmanovic Thunström, medical researcher at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who published a preprint paper on the made-up disease to see if LLMs would repeat false medical information. Indeed, they would, and it didn’t take long. The best part? The paper actually contained the text, “this entire paper is made up,” and its lead author was listed as “Lazljiv Izgubljenovic,” which means “The Lying Loser” in Slovenian. Learn more » [6 min]
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