Hello Reader!

While I was in Japan, my friend Hannes told me about a short story he’d read. It was one of those eerie, near-future thought experiments that sticks in your head, and I can't stop thinking about it.

In the story, AI becomes incredibly good at decision-making. Not just helpful—flawless. It analyzes every variable and always picks the best possible outcome.

Naturally, people start trusting it. First, for small things: What should I eat? Which route should I take?

Then bigger things: Which job should I accept? Should I break up with this person?

Eventually, no one bothers weighing pros and cons. They just ask the AI.
And the AI always knows.

To reduce friction, the system evolves.

Instead of detailed explanations, it offers two options: [Click] or [Click].
Left or right. Yes or no. A or B.

There’s no need for context or reasoning anymore. You can trust the outcome. Because it works. And because it works, people stop asking questions.

They stop thinking critically.

They stop deciding.

Over time, human brains atrophy.

Judgment fades.

Conversations shrink.

Communication collapses into pure input-response behavior—just clicks.

The story ends in a world where people no longer speak, argue, reflect, or even wonder.

They simply click.

The story is fiction. But, is it?

Because now:

I use AI for a wide range of tasks, including helping me ideate, summarize, edit, suggest, plan, and strategize (and I love many aspects of it).

But I also notice how quickly I’ll default to its suggestions and how easy it is to let my own instincts take a backseat.

The clicks are creeping in for me.

I also notice A LOT of brief writing, outlining, and even content creation has become a pile of thoughtless whateverness.

And across the web, we’re seeing something similar.

Ahrefs recently found that Google’s AI Overviews are more likely to cite AI-generated content than human writing. 87.8% of the sources were at least partially AI-assisted. AI is increasingly learning from AI. It’s a growing feedback loop where machine-generated content reinforces more machine-generated content.

Now, obviously, this story is hyperbole and a bit of a cautionary tale for people who use AI in the wrong ways. But, but here’s what I’m wondering:

What’s the balance in content marketing, especially when search starts to look like machines regurgitating machines? When is AI genuinely helpful, and when is it crowding out the creative thought process?

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading,

Ashley R. Cummings

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