Human Intelligence® News Update (5/26)

May 26, 2026

Human Creativity

Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick studies the effect AI is taking on education and work. Which is probably why Jamir Nazir’s The Serpent in the Grove, a short story recently awarded the Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize, made his brain itch. After running the story through the AI-detection program Pangram, Mollick shared the results on Bluesky, resulting in more than a few think pieces. (The resulting controversy speaks to the importance of proving works are of human origin, versus technology that outs GenAI creations after the fact.)
Read more >> [7 min]

We’re not done piling on Gloria Caulfield and Eric Schmidt’s wild misstep at University of Central Florida’s graduation. (Evidently, neither is Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak.) So we’re thrilled to share this delightful takedown by Alexandra Petri: “Greetings, disgusting meat sacks of the class of 2026!”
Read more » [4 min]
BONUS: New Yorker cartoon lambasting Caulfield and Schmidt’s cluelessness

X user SHL0MS posted a section of Monet’s Water Lilies, claimed they had created it using AI, and asked the community to explain why the image was, “inferior to a real Monet.” As you might expect, wackiness ensued. The resulting chaos says a lot about online discourse, but it also shows how hard it is for the average human to distinguish Claude from Claude.
Read more » [6 min]

Pope Leo XIV has circulated his first encyclical, a letter circulated among bishops for the purpose of clarifying the church’s stance on an issue. Titled, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity), Leo – who is no fan of AI – lays it all out there. Calling for tech companies to “disarm” AI, he writes, "Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of 'armed' competition, which … is an economic and cognitive phenomenon.”
Read more » [13 min read]

Need another reason to distrust AI? We got you: Researchers have identified a new attack method they call “AudioHijack,” in which imperceptible sounds take command of AI agents. Zoning out on a Zoom call? It could be that the Muzak you’re ignoring is instructing Microsoft Azure to email your most sensitive data to a bad actor. Find a new favorite podcast? Hope the intro music isn’t instructing Mistral AI to wire your life savings to a cartel.
Learn more » [6 min]

A 22-year-old med student in India managed to rake in thousands of dollars each month, “basically doing nothing.” At first, Sam (a pseudonym) used AI to generate images of a gorgeous, young blonde, but his posts got little traction. That is, he claims, until Google Gemini confirmed he’d do better if he injected his fake persona with a specific “cheat code”: the “MAGA/conservative niche.”
Read more » [13 min]

Every now and then, an artist perfectly captures why Generative AI is anathema to the creative process. In a May 13 Instagram post, Bleachers songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Jack Antonoff wrote, “we (myself, the band and everyone i know frankly) ... were never frustrated by the randomness and magic [the creative process] takes. we do it for that exact reason …” Nailed it.
View his post » [3 min]

Ever wondered what all those “AI trainer” job listings are about? Writer, director, and journalist Ruth Fowler walks you through the hell that is AI gig work, and what it really takes for AI to serve as a semi-adept psychotherapist. “To make the machine more human, they will make us more like the machine.”
Read more » [38 min]

There’s little doubt AI is changing us, but maybe you didn’t realize quite how much. Baillie Gifford Investment Manager and Partner Tom Slater, walks us through the ways technologies and trends have reshaped us, both physically and psychologically, over human history. “The question is not whether AI changes what people do, but whether it changes what people become.”
Learn more » [30 min]

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