Andrew Maynard

Is AI reducing you to a LinkedIn stereotype? After playing around with Claude this week, I'm worried that LLMs are stripping us of all those idiosyncrasies that make us interesting as people. Are we all being "LinkedInified" by our AI creations?

Is AI reducing you to a LinkedIn stereotype?
www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-linkedi...

Why we're giving away our book on thriving with AI Jeff and I have released two free, AI-readable versions of AI and the Art of Being Human. Here's why — and some things you can do with them that surprised even us.

Why we're giving away our book on thriving with AI (and how to get a copy)

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/why-were-g...

Definitely worth knowing about, although the undergrads I talk with want to extract the value out of their tuition fees rather than outsourcing it!

What we miss when we talk about "AI Harnesses" AI Harness Engineering is suddenly in vogue. But does the seemingly innocuous "harness" metaphor come with hidden risks?

AI Harness Engineering is suddenly in vogue (spurred on by Ethan Mollick's post this past week). But does the seemingly innocuous "harness" metaphor come with hidden risks?

Some thoughts in today's Substack and a linked preprint:

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/what-we-mi...

How do you "do" books in an age of AI? We've just dropped the complete text of "AI and the Art of Being Human" (the Pocket Edition) as a free AI Companion, and want to know how you will use it!

We've just released the full text of AI and the Art of Being Human: The Pocket Edition as an AI Companion

Please feel free to download it, use it, share it, and tell us your story of what you do with it!

More info and links at: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/how-do-you...

The AI book I actually carry with me How a flight home from Portugal turned into the just-released coffee-stained pocket edition of AI and the Art of Being Human

How a flight home from Portugal turned into the just-released coffee-stained pocket edition of AI and the Art of Being Human

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-ai-boo...

Could AI bots ever learn to “reprogram” their human creators? Watching Moltbook unfold has put me in a speculative frame of mind ...

Watching Moltbook unfold has put me in a speculative frame of mind ...
www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/soul-update

Beeswax Hallucinations and AI Inventions I thought I was pretty savvy when it comes to navigating AI hallucinations. I was wrong.

I thought I was pretty savvy when it comes to navigating AI hallucinations. I was wrong.
www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/beeswax-ha...

Thanks!

Lost in the Moltbook Hall of Mirrors A new "Social Network for AI Agents" is breaking the internet. And things are getting weird ...

I had other plans today, but the craziness around the AI bot social media site #moltbook messed that up!

My initial thoughts the Moltbook phenomenon and a seemingly exponential explosion of emergent AI bot behaviors ...

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/lost-in-th...

Trump (2016): "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters."

As it turns out, this was more accurate than we knew at the time.

‘was already restrained’

Can modern scholarship escape AI? I wrote a paper ...

Can modern scholarship escape AI?

I flexed the full might of my satirical academic prowess, and wrote a paper ...

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/can-modern...

This is very much in your domain - would be interested in your thoughts. And maybe this is more my lack of ability with language!

Think you know AI? Think again! Anthropic's new AI Constitution profoundly challenges how we think about, develop, and use artificial intelligence, while also opening up potentially transformative possibilities

Think you know AI? Think again!

Anthropic's new AI Constitution profoundly challenges how we think about, develop, and use artificial intelligence, while also opening up potentially transformative possibilities

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/think-you-...

Your regular reminder that Republicans in Congress approve of what the President is doing.

From président Macron to President Trump My friend, We are totally in line on Syria We can do great things on Iran I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland Let us try to build great things: 1) i can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us Emmanuel 5:01 PM

Risks in the age of WhatsApp diplomacy. Trump attempts to humiliate Macron. Macron’s message reveals how easy it is to divide Europe – as if that needed saying – and that Russia is on the way back in.

A dark blue mug with an American flag reads “AMERICA 1776 – 2026”

Fairly sure it’s unintentional, but the end date on this mug being sold by the Smithsonian does make it sound a little like they’re saying America dies in 2026…

Trump Threatens 200% Tariffs on Wine if France Declines to Join Gaza Board of Peace France has said it will not join President Trump’s “Board for Peace.” France’s agriculture minister described the tariff threat as “blackmail.”

President Trump threatened on Monday to impose 200% tariffs on French wine, including Champagne, if President Emmanuel Macron of France declined to join his proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Trump Administration Live Updates: President Linked Greenland Push to Nobel Prize Snub, Officials Say

Just when you thought we'd reached peak madness, this:

President Trump is now claiming that one reason he is pushing to acquire Greenland is that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister over the weekend."

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

I'd wager this is the angriest statement ever issued by the Nobel Peace Prize people...

PS - apologies for the brusqueness! Not intended, just an enthusiastic observation 😊

That of course depends on whether you're looking at the use of material during training that provided language fluency, retrieval of online content, or inference of content from online material. And of course I used a whole bunch of copyright material (nearly every paper I used) in my contributions!

Disagree - as I've worked with RAG systems. because the retrieval is selective they have a tendency to miss important content and connections. Plus the key takeaway here is that human in the loop scholarship, discernment and steer is essential

I cracked and wrote an academic paper using AI. here's what I learned ... I deeply dislike AI-generated academic slop. But I'm curious about how AI can genuinely accelerate legitimate research. So I took the plunge ...

I deeply dislike AI-generated academic slop. But I'm curious about how AI can genuinely accelerate legitimate research. So I took the plunge and "co-wrote" a paper with Anthropic's Claude.

This is how it went:

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/i-cracked-...

A screenshot from a USA Today story on Trump's plans to take over Greenland, showing icy photos of Greenland

In what crazy version of the world we live in is it OK to report on Trump's potential military invasion of Greenland with a photo gallery with the caption "See the icy land of Greenland ..." This is not entertainment, a slow news day filler, or a photo op!

This is appalling: Top DOJ officials are actively pushing for a criminal investigation into the widow of Renee Good, leading prosecutors to quit en masse, NYT is reporting.

Who in the White House ordered DOJ to do this? That's the next thing to establish.

Watch Iran’s Praetorians, Not Its Protests Why autocrats fear their generals more than the mob

Watch Iran’s Praetorians, Not Its Protesters
open.substack.com/pub/7thing/p...

Is AI a Cognitive Trojan Horse? Could on-demand, seductively responsive and highly fluent AI models bypass our "epistemic vigilance" mechanisms, and present a novel cognitive risk?

Is AI a Cognitive Trojan Horse?

Could on-demand, seductively responsive and highly fluent AI models bypass our "epistemic vigilance" mechanisms, and present a novel cognitive risk?

Read the full article here:

www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/is-ai-a-co...