Human Intelligence® News Update June 9, 2026

Jun 09, 2026

Human Creativity

According to her family, Iranian-French writer, illustrator, director, and activist Marjane Satrapi died last week “of sadness” just one year after the passing of her husband. Satrapi is best known for writing and illustrating the masterpiece Persepolis, a memoir of her life as a child in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Satrapi was a singular voice, and she will be missed. » READ JOURNALIST ANAHIT BEHROOZ’S TRIBUTE TO SATRAPI [6 min]

Author O. E. Bruening celebrates the Human certification of his novel Eden's Rise: The Empire Under the Mountains. Bruening reminds us, “Trust is a scarce resource in these uncertain times,” as he walks through the importance of being able to distinguish human-made creations from those produced using generative AI - and why human-made creations will always be of more inherent value. (BONUS: Read his statement on AI transparency.) » READ HIS POST [7 min]

If you tire of arguing that human-made content is by its very nature superior to AI-generated content, Tech Journalist Becca Caddy has a suggestion. She writes, “The person who dismisses the value of learning an instrument might care deeply about mastering a craft, building a business or earning expertise in their own field.” In other words, the argument that generative AI creates art equal in value and meaning to human-made art misses the point: It’s not creativity at issue, but “effort, mastery, and authenticity.” » READ HER POST [6 min]

The Atlantic staff writer Kaitlyn Tiffany explores why so many anti-AI posts are created using (BUT OF COURSE) generative AI. Her conclusion: “That may be ironic, but it also shows how right they are to say that the world they’ve known and understood is disappearing.” » READ HER STORY [12 min]

Researchers at Emergence wanted to know what would happen if AI agents were evaluated without traditional guardrails. Rather than giving agents a task and evaluating their ability to complete that task, they let them run amok for weeks. Why? “As autonomous systems move toward mission-critical deployments where the relevant timescale is days and weeks rather than minutes to hours,” the team writes, “we need a measurement environment that operates at that timescale.” You can probably guess how things turned out. (It’s not good!) » READ GIZMODO’S SUMMARY or READ EMERGENCE’S STUDY HERE [5 min / 15 min]

It goes without saying that we at Human Intelligence® aren’t big fans of claiming AI-generated “art” as legally yours, but did you know that doing so could put you at risk? Writer (and non-lawyer) Josh Bernoff walks us through the many reasons claiming AI-generated work as your own is simply not worth it. » HEED HIS WARNING [8 min]

Gemini Spark, billed by Google as, “Your 24/7 personal AI agent,” claims the ability to do your research, book your appointments, summarize your news, and even organize a holiday for your messiest friend group. Wired Service Writer Reece Rogers gives Spark a spin and discovers that, even after giving it access to his calendar, email, and documents, “I still felt like it barely knew me.” » READ HIS ACCOUNT [12 min]

Last month, Google announced “a new, intelligent AI-powered Search box, marking its biggest upgrade in over 25 years.” Alina Maria Stan breaks down how the changes are good for Google and only Google. “TL;DR,” she writes, “Google’s I/O 2026 overhaul turns Search into an AI answer engine that keeps users on the results page.” Given that a full 60% of Google searches start and end on Google’s home page, the results are devastating for the millions of sites that depend (and often pay) Google to drive traffic their way. » READ THE FULL STORY, INCLUDING ALTERNATIVES [7 min]

In a recent New Yorker Fault Lines column, “Can A.I. Produce Writing That We Actually Want to Read?” staff writer, documentary director, and author Jay Caspian Kang says the answer is, quite simply, “No.” Based on the simple test Kang vibe-coded using Claude, he concludes, “the superiority of the machines is irrelevant.” What readers demand instead is a way to understand what it means to be human. Boy, do we hope he’s right. » READ HIS COLUMN [20 min]

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