philosophy

Let AI Do the Heavy Knowledge Lifting

/ Michelle L Crowley / Leave a comment

Much has been written about the avalanche of AI bombarding our engagement in the digital realm. For instance, copywriters and editors on LinkedIn lament the myth that an em-dash means “AI did it.” YouTube videos and podcasts [1,2] are helping viewers recognise when “AI did it.”

Bloggers draw attention to the AI-slop served up in the marketing world [3], and those who work online express irritation about how intrusive it is, with a “How can I help you?” at every click. Now Firefox has “Kit.”  

So, what does AI like ChatGPT do? Basically, it gathers information from a very large digital data pool (very quickly) and synthesises that encoded information for a purpose. However, its purpose rests with the instruction given or the question asked. So, bullshit in, bullshit out: I learned that in the very early 1980s when processing survey data in a corporate environment.

AI’s capacity to synthesise information is incredible, but its thinking process, the putting together of that information, is purely (and only) rational. AI does not have “ah hah” moments, flashes of brilliance, creative spurts, or a sense of wonder when patterns are recognised. These non-rational thinking processes have generated some of the most outstanding art and scientific breakthroughs. For example, chemist August Kekulé dreamed of a snake biting its tail, which led to the understanding of the benzene molecule’s cyclic structure [4], René Descartes imagined the world as a grand machine, laying the groundwork for machine consciousness [5]. 

AI is also not inspired by angels, nor does it struggle with demons. Nor does AI respond with its instincts, as do all flesh and blood creatures. AI is a machine; non-rational and irrational thinking processes are exclusively human in comparison.

So, considering that the various types of knowledge, 14 according to some [6], can be loosely categorised as personal, social, and digital, we know the following: First, AI has no access at all to the personal level. Even if it collects your health data via your smartwatch, it is data, and data is always second-hand. Second, the knowledge we share about our experiences is already detached when it is encoded with language (words, numbers, symbols, images) to become social knowledge. Then AI must digitalise that second-hand, social knowledge, making what it spits out third-hand information. Third, AI is limited with respect to its thinking process. It is incapable of being unpredictable, following a hunch, or taking an imaginative leap: Those are human strengths.

So, let AI do the heavy knowledge lifting with its logical, systematic, and methodical processes and instead focus on the blessing of being human: unpredictable, gutsy, and imaginative.

  1. NOVA PBS Official. (2025, Oct. 12) How to Detect Deepfakes: The Science of Recognizing AI Generated Content.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMoOCKkcd_w,
  2. NOVA PBS Official. (2025, Aug. 26). The Deepfake Detective | Particles of Thought. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG2_GhNdTek
  3. Robinson, Stephan. (2025, Oct. 21). AI Slop is Creating New Freelance Work: Why Businesses Still Need Human Experts in 2025. https://www.peopleperhour.com/discover/guides/ai-slop-is-creating-new-freelance-work-why-businesses-still-need-human-experts-in-2025/
  4. Read, John (1957). From Alchemy to Chemistry. Courier Corporation.  
  5. Sanderson, Daniel. (2025, Oct. 11). The Role of Imagination in Scientific Hypotheses and Memory and Imagination. https://www.planksip.org/the-role-of-imagination-in-scientific-hypothesis-and-memory-and-imagination-1760233400612/
  6. Drew, C. (2023, March 2). The 14 Types of Knowledge. https://helpfulprofessor.com/types-of-knowledge/

Identifying the Two-Dimensional Monotone Monologue of Artificial Intelligence

/ Michelle L Crowley / Leave a comment

Hany Farid, an expert in identifying deepfakes, or AI-generated footage of events that have never occurred, claims that human beings can correctly recognize AI-audio just slightly more than chance [1,2]. That sure makes our responses to what we hear and see on social media and professional platforms important: Arguably, madness is a product of responding to what is not real.

Farid’s tools for identification are primarily technical. He uses machines (computers) to do it, but there are other ways of figuring out if what you are seeing and hearing is AI-generated.

Unlike machine consciousness, human consciousness is sensual: we inhabit a meat suit and gather data through it. Two senses are essential for sifting authentic content from AI content. First, the voice of AI-generated content has a particular scripted tone—a tone that transfers even into the academic works/self-help books I edit.

Then there are visual clues—an overly dramatic edge, five fingers and a thumb, shadows that contradict (or none), limbs that come out of or disappear into other objects. As AI is improved and the pixel arrangements become more seamless, the visual clues will become less evident.

A third helpful sense for differentiating authentic footage from AI-generated footage is what some call intuition, a flexible, non-rational experience-based insight [3]. I call the latter soul. If you tune into what you see with your soul, you can feel the soul or absence of it in what is presented. AI generates a deadness. Even when the creator tries to animate what AI produces, it comes across as a two-dimensional monotone monologue with no spark of life behind it. Inevitably, intelligent human beings are going to grow tired of what Stephen Robinson calls AI-slop, or “the flood of low-quality AI outputs that look convincing at first glance but miss the mark in accuracy, tone, usability, or brand fit” [4].   

Of course, AI is not all bad. It is a blessing when one wants to check a fact or definition, find an answer to a quick question, or is gathering and synthesizing information. On social media, sometimes a story is told that tugs at the heart, and your heart might just open. But AI is not going to save us from anything except the heavy lifting or replace jobs except for those held by bureaucrats and call-centre staff. The world is full of forms to complete and chatbots helping one do it.  

Still, it is time to see AI for what it is: a machine, a tool that echoes what has been put into language and published digitally by the collective of human consciousness. Essentially, AI has no access to what is. It cannot access the messiness of being in a body and rubbing shoulders with others. It only has access to the experiences that human beings put into language. Its condition for existence is “data.” Data is always second-hand.

But most important of all, remember AI will never enjoy those non-rational moments of insight that expand human consciousness.

  1. NOVA PBS Official. (2025, Oct. 12) How to Detect Deepfakes: The Science of Recognizing AI Generated Content.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMoOCKkcd_w,
  2. NOVA PBS Official. (2025, Aug. 26). The Deepfake Detective | Particles of Thought. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG2_GhNdTek
  3. Rephrasely Media. (2023, Jan. 15). Instinct vs. Intuition. https://rephrasely.com/usage/instinct-vs-intuition
  4. Robinson, Stephan. (2025, Oct. 21). “AI Slop is Creating New Freelance Work: Why Businesses Still Need Human Experts in 2025. https://www.peopleperhour.com/discover/guides/ai-slop-is-creating-new-freelance-work-why-businesses-still-need-human-experts-in-2025/