'Frankenstein' director's AI warning: It's here to 'debase' our humanity



Art created by artificial intelligence is an attempt to reduce a society's sense of humanity, according to one Hollywood director.

This sort of treatment of art is "always a prelude to fascism," the director also warned.

'That is always the prelude to fascism.'

No ifs, ands, or bots

While accepting an honor from Variety at its 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro continued his recent onslaught against the use of artificial intelligence for art.

"Be kind, be involved, and believe in your art," del Toro said, emphasizing that when art is minimalized, bad times are ahead.

"In a time where people tell you art is not important, that is always the prelude to fascism. Always. When they tell you it doesn't matter, when they tell you a f**king app can do art, you say, 'Well, if it's that easy and if it's that unimportant, why the f**k do they want it so bad?'"

The director answered his own question, warning that the reduction of art to a line of code removes a certain degree of humanity.

"The answer is because they think they can debase everything that makes us a little better, a little more human. And that, in my book and in my life, includes monsters."

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Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Monster high

Del Toro's tirade came on the heels of similar remarks last month at the 2025 Gotham Film Awards, where he made a point of announcing that his widely praised "Frankenstein" was "willfully made by humans for humans."

After praising the movie's "designers, builders, makeup, [and] wardrobe" teams, the director paused and added, "F**k AI."

The 61-year-old — one of the most prominent Hollywood power players to speak out against the dangers of AI — also hinted at why he prefers to work in the horror/fantasy genre: "Sometimes the world gets so complicated, you can only explain it with the power of monsters."

"We are in a time like that right now," he added.

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'Death' wish

Despite his anti-AI stance, del Toro is far from a techno-phobe.

In 2023, he praised Japanese video game auteur Hideo Kojima's "paradoxical creation" and his ability to "break the barrier between cinema and games."

Del Toro appears as the character Deadman in Kojima's 2019 game "Death Stranding," as well as its 2025 sequel.

Elon Musk's xAI inks new deal with War Department



Hot on the heels of a highly publicized dinner with Donald and Melania Trump, Elon Musk will continue his work with the federal government through a new agreement that will affect the daily workflows of Department of War employees.

Last July, Musk's xAI entered a $200 million contract with the Pentagon to adopt advanced AI capabilities for sectors like national defense. Now, both the DOW and xAI are shedding light on some of the details surrounding their partnership in other areas.

'xAI will make available a family of government-optimized foundation models.'

In late December, the DOW announced its internal AI platform would be expanded to include xAI for "frontier-grade" capabilities.

"This initiative will soon embed xAI's frontier AI systems, based on the Grok family of models, directly into GenAI.mil. Targeted for initial deployment in early 2026," a press release stated.

This will enable the "secure handling" of "Controlled Unclassified Information" in the daily workflows of government employees, who will also gain access to "global insights" on X, which will allegedly provide a "decisive information advantage."

However, there is no indication what those insights include.

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Photo by Didem Mente/Anadolu via Getty Images

The xAI company announced in its own statement that it would be providing access to its AI models, "agentic tools, research platform, and API," unlocking real-time insights.

The systems can be embedded into the daily work of the DOW's some 3 million military and civilian employees, "from the Pentagon to the tactical edge."

"xAI will make available a family of government-optimized foundation models to support classified operational workloads," the press release added.

The DOW has also entered into contracts with other advanced technology companies like EdgeRunner AI and Palmer Luckey's Anduril.

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Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The expanded partnership between the DOW and Musk came just days after xAI announced a new artificial voice generation application.

The Grok Voice Agent API operates essentially as a search engine optimizer that acts as a voice for a chatbot. The company released a series of sample voices, which "speak dozens of languages, call tools, and search realtime data."

The product is currently being rolled out in Teslas to relay vehicle status, search directions, and control navigation.

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Six questions Trump and conservatives can no longer dodge in ’26



For conservatives, January 2025 felt like an auspicious moment to be alive. Donald Trump sat atop the world with a bully pulpit larger than any media outlet and the power to drive virtually any narrative he chose. Yet instead of using that power, we spent the year arguing over the power the GOP supposedly lacked.

Almost no legislation was passed. Many of the most transformational policies Trump enacted through executive action now sit mired in the courts.

Where is our Mamdani?

Fast-forward to January 2026. The economy looks grim. Democrats are crushing Republicans in special elections. It feels like a different universe.

Republicans tend to operate on a familiar two-year cycle. After a victory, the first year involves explaining why campaign promises cannot be fulfilled. The second year, ending in November elections, turns into defensive posturing: As disappointed as voters may be, they must remember that Democrats represent instant political death.

The implication stays constant. Voters must dutifully back the GOP, ignore the fact that Republicans currently hold power, and politely bypass the primary process out of fear of weakening resistance to Democrats.

As we enter the new year, we have reached the “rally around the GOP to stop the Democrats” phase of the cycle once again.

But reality intrudes. No matter how faithfully the base rallies, Republicans will likely lose in November because of the economy. Absent a dramatic national reset, Democrats will retake the House, probably with a substantial majority.

That makes the present moment decisive. With trifecta control still intact for now, Republicans must use what power they have to improve daily life, enact changes harder to undo, and reinforce red-state America so the coming blue wave does not obliterate the remaining red firewall.

Whether Republicans break free from their familiar cycle of election-failure theater comes down to the answers to these six questions.

1. Will the red firewall hold?

Republicans will likely lose the House and surrender residual power in battleground states such as Georgia and Arizona. Independents have abandoned the GOP, and that trend will accelerate as economic conditions worsen.

The question is whether Republicans will give their voters something worth turning out for. Base turnout alone will not flip purple territory, but it could stop the bleeding deep into red states and keep races such as the Iowa and Ohio governorships out of reach.

This past year made clear that Republicans are losing races they never should have had to defend. A deeper economic downturn would push that line even farther.

2. How toxic do AI data centers become — and will Republicans notice?

By the end of 2025, opposition to data centers surged across ideological lines. Communities worry about water use, power strain, housing values, and secondary effects.

Democrats have begun embracing that resistance as Trump elevates data centers and tech interests as pillars of his economic agenda. Will this issue fracture Republicans’ coalition or even force a break with Trump?

3. What will Republicans do with health care?

Democrats engineered a trap that forces Republicans to address health care, the single largest driver of deficits, inflation, and household pain.

Obamacare made unsubsidized insurance unaffordable for most Americans. Democrats then timed the expiration of expanded subsidies to land on Trump’s watch, ensuring that voters blame him rather than the law’s architects.

Anything Trump does — or refuses to do — will be pinned on him. That reality argues for pushing a genuinely free-market repeal-and-replace that lowers costs. History suggests that outcome remains unlikely. I’m not holding my breath, anyway.

4. Will Trump finally ignore a lawless court?

Could a powerless judge issue a ruling so egregious that it would prompt Trump to defy it at long last?

I am not holding my breath on that one, either.

RELATED: The courts are running the country — and Trump is letting it happen

Photo by Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

5. Will Trump clear the decks on his promises dating back to 2015?

Democrats will likely control one or both chambers for the remainder of Trump’s term. Regardless of strategy, they probably win the midterms.

That means Trump has nothing to lose by executing fully on his original agenda now. Immigration moratoria, judicial reform, welfare devolution, bans on the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Antifa — these changes should be forced through every “must-pass” bill available.

An all-out approach carries policy upside and political clarity.

6. Will Trump stop making bad primary endorsements?

This year’s primaries matter far more than the general election. They will determine whether red states have leaders willing to defend their prerogatives when Democrats reclaim federal power.

If Trump continues endorsing lackluster governors and candidates such as Byron Donalds in Florida, Greg Abbott in Texas, and Brad Little in Idaho, conservatives will have nowhere to retreat when figures like Zohran Mamdani dominate national politics.

RELATED: Trump’s agenda faces a midterm kill switch in 2026

Photo by Amir Hamja-Pool/Getty Images

Mamdani’s takeover of New York and his appointment of Ramzi Kassem — a 9/11 al-Qaeda defense lawyer — as chief counsel drew outrage on the right. At his inauguration, Mamdani declared, “We’ll replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

Rather than merely lamenting how Marxists consolidate power in deep-blue America, conservatives should let that example ignite action where they actually govern. If the left can floor the gas pedal in its strongholds, why can’t we?

Where is our Mamdani?

This moment demands urgency. GOP power has become a “use it or lose it” proposition. Trump must finally become the right-wing disruptor his supporters were promised.

If he cannot — or will not — then Republicans deserve to go the way of the Whigs.

The Biggest Parental Rights Fights Of 2025 — And What Parents Face Next

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25,000 Americans apply for just 1,000 jobs at new federal Tech Force



Hot on the heels of the U.S. government's announcement of the Tech Force combing for 1,000 new recruits, 25 times that number of Americans have sent in their resumes to the cross-agency technology team.

The Tech Force, announced mid-month, urged the country's best and brightest to head to its website to apply for short-term federal employment. Over the ensuing week, that number has risen to at least 25,000, according to Scott Kupor, the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

'Tech Force will tackle the most complex and large-scale civic and defense challenges of our era.'

With a two-year government contract worth as much as $200,000, recruits will be part of an "elite group" of tech specialists hired to "accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) implementation" and solve critical tech challenges.

The unprecedented new group will primarily recruit those early in their careers, the Tech Force website explained, who specialize in engineering, AI, cybersecurity, data analytics, or project management in tech. Those brought on board can expect to implement AI programs and applications, modernize data, and provide digital service delivery at federal agencies.

"Backed by the White House, Tech Force will tackle the most complex and large-scale civic and defense challenges of our era," the outfit promised. "From administering critical financial infrastructure at the Treasury Department to advancing cutting-edge programs at the Department of Defense, and everything in between."

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— (@)

Hires can look forward to working with agency leadership and "leading technology companies" to train and engage with senior management from partnered companies. The government openly states that once Tech Forcers are finished with their training program, they will seek employment at the partnering private-sector companies in order to demonstrate "the value of combining civil service with technical expertise."

Along with the competitive high salaries, the government program says it provides benefits like health insurance, retirement plans, and "performance-based awards."

The duties and scope of the Tech Force varied to a great degree, with the official website providing a lengthy list of federal agencies that participants can expect to be placed within. These included the Departments of War, Treasury, State, Labor, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Housing & Urban Development, Transportation, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs.

Other agencies like the Small Business Administration, IRS, and Office of Personnel Management were also noted.

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Photo by Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images

Readers on X had mixed reactions to open recruitment, with several hoping the program would only be open to Americans and others sarcastically saying that it probably should not be filled "with Indians."

The application form goes through the USA Jobs website.

The official account for the Young Republicans of Texas said the program could be an effective way to prove that there are "plenty of qualified Americans" in the tech field.

At the same time, others worried about a dystopian future that could arise from combining advanced technology and the Treasury Department.

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3 BlazeTV hosts give their top 2026 predictions — and they’re wild



2026 is widely predicted to be an explosive and turbulent year. AI is growing faster than we can keep track of. Global conflicts are simmering. The world economy is teetering on a debt-fueled monetary reset and possible dollar crisis.

It’s going to be a wild year.

On this episode of “Glenn TV,” Glenn Beck, Steve Deace, and Liz Wheeler give their top predictions for 2026.

Steve Deace

Prediction #1: America trades Taiwan for Venezuela’s oil

“I think that China and the U.S. are going to effectively swap Taiwan and Venezuela,” says Deace.

“With the disruption that is happening in markets and where we are in terms of a long-term paradigm shift, I think we are not just going to sit there and just let Venezuela with maybe the largest oil reserves in the world just go on the bye-bye here in our own hemisphere.”

This, in turn, he says, will spur China to “do the exact same thing to Taiwan.”

“Steve is right on the money,” says Glenn’s head writer and researcher, Jason Buttrill, who is a former U.S. Marine intelligence specialist and Department of Defense contractor.

Glenn notes that this has massive implications for chip-making, as Taiwan currently supplies the United States with over 90% of the world’s highest-performance chips that go into smartphones, modern weapons, and artificial intelligence.

Prediction #2: Global leader alleges alien contact

“I think we're going to see at least one elected official somewhere in the world next year claim to have directly communicated one-on-one with non-human intelligence,” says Steve.

Public interest in extraterrestrial life is peaking right now, he says. “The number-one-selling movie in America right now on Amazon, the biggest website in the world, is ‘Age of Disclosure”’ — a 2025 documentary claiming to expose an 80-year global government cover-up of non-human intelligent life and a secret international race to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology.

On top of that, world-renowned director Steven Spielberg — who has been pretty quiet since what many thought was his farewell film back in 2022 — has come out of retirement to direct a "disclosure film on UFOs" in 2026.

“The pressure on this is amping up,” says Steve.

Liz Wheeler

Prediction #1: Cabinet turnover

“I think we're going to see some significant Cabinet turnover in the Trump administration,” says Liz, noting that it is Attorney General Pam Bondi who is most likely on the chopping block.

“Listen, we voted for Trump because we want justice for all of the deep-state weaponization of the government targeted at us. And we have not seen that from the Pam Bondi Department of Justice,” says Liz.

“The Trump voter demographic has patience. We're generous. We understand that we're up against this conglomerate enemy, but I think people are starting to run out of patience.”

Prediction #2: Denaturalization and deportation of a certain member of Congress

Liz’s top prediction, she says, is that “a member of the U.S. Congress will be denaturalized and removed from Congress and deported from the United States of America.”

“I wonder who that could be,” laughs Glenn.

Liz is, of course, referring to Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.) — a radical leftist who prioritizes foreign interests, especially her home country of Somalia, over America.

Besides the strong speculation that Omar illegally married her own brother, there is ample evidence that Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed, came to America not because he was fleeing a tyrannical regime but rather because he was “a member of that regime,” says Liz.

“He was actually a high-ranking military official [in Somalia]. He tried to hide that association so that he could claim asylum here in the United States, but he was in charge of propaganda for that communist regime,” she explains, calling it “immigration fraud.”

If that is found to be true, then “Ilhan Omar's naturalized citizenship status is itself illegitimate.”

Glenn Beck

Prediction #1: AI boom threatens US power grid

Glenn has been warning for some time that surging AI data-center energy demand will eventually strain the U.S. grid, causing rolling blackouts and brownouts.

“I think 2026 is going to be the first year that we see things like Texas having rolling brownouts for a week at a time. I think you're going to start to see the strain on the grid by the end of next year in ways that you would never have expected,” he says.

Prediction #2: Civil rights movement 2.0 sparked by AI

“I think next year is going to be a huge year historically for the beginning of a civil rights movement,” says Glenn. “I think we are going to see massive civil rights cases come to the courts next year, and they're only going to get bigger and bigger.”

He warns that these kinds of cases will be unprecedented, as courts will debate whether AI-generated content, like deepfakes for example, count as protected speech and whether censoring "harmful" AI output is a First Amendment violation.

2026 is also when AI rules and regulations will greatly impact public education, says Glenn. Whether it is heavy AI policing, which could spark a full-blown privacy revolt, or the opposite — intense AI implementation via proctoring software, keyword/voice monitoring, or facial recognition camera — a “civil rights movement” over technology in classrooms is sure to spark.

To hear more 2026 predictions, watch the episode above.

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Digital NECROMANCY? This new AI tech crossed a spiritual line.



AI company 2wai may have taken its latest commercial a bit too far — as it presents the idea that your loved ones could live forever, as AI avatars, of course.

In the commercial, a pregnant mother speaks to her passed loved one via the phone app, showing the avatar her stomach.

“Oh, honey, that’s wonderful,” the AI responds. “He’s listening. Put your hand on your tummy and hum to him. You used to love that.”

The deceased avatar is 2wai’s core product, a HoloAvatar — which is an AI rendition of a real person, brought to life by a large language model.


“The question on the table, based on what you just saw: ‘Is this idolatry or not?’” BlazeTV host Steve Deace asks BlazeTV contributor Todd Erzen on the “Steve Deace Show.”

“To quote Gandalf, ‘Run, you fools,’” Erzen responds. “This is grotesque idolatry. This is emotional pornography of the highest order.”

“I lost my mother three months before I got married. She never got to meet my four daughters. She was the finest human being I ever met. She was truly good. I would never dishonor her memory with this. I’m utterly disgusted by the perpetual childish neediness of grown-ups who would bow at this altar,” he continues.

“It is profoundly wicked and evil to normalize this in any way, shape, or form. May God have mercy on our souls, quite frankly,” he adds.

“Steve Deace Show” executive producer Aaron McIntire is on the same page as Erzen, telling Deace the product should be burned “with fire.”

“It’s possible that this might not be idolatry if we were all robots, but we’re not robots. Something like this is just not fit for human nature,” he adds.

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How data centers could spark the next populist revolt



Everyone keeps promising that artificial intelligence will deliver wonders beyond imagination — medical breakthroughs, massive productivity gains, boundless prosperity. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. But one outcome is already clear: If data centers keep driving up Americans’ electricity bills, AI will quickly become a political liability.

Across the country, data center expansion has already helped push electricity prices up 13% over the past year, and voters are starting to push back.

Handled correctly, AI can strengthen America. Handled poorly — by letting data centers overwhelm the grid and drive families toward energy poverty — it will accelerate decline.

In recent months, plans for massive new data centers in Virginia, Maryland, Texas, and Arizona have stalled or collapsed under local backlash. Ordinary Americans have packed town halls and flooded city councils, demanding protection from corporate projects that devour land, drain water supplies, and strain already fragile power grids.

These communities are not rejecting technology. They are rejecting exploitation. As one local official in Chandler, Arizona, told a developer bluntly, “If you can’t show me what’s in it for Chandler, then we’re not having a conversation.”

The problem runs deeper than zoning fights or aesthetics. America’s monopoly utility model shields data centers from the true cost of the strain they impose on the grid. When a facility requires new substations, transmission lines, or transformers — or when its relentless demand drives up electricity prices — utilities spread those costs across every household and small business in the service area.

That arrangement socializes the costs of Big Tech’s growth while privatizing the gains. It also breeds populist anger.

A better approach sits within reach: neighborhood battery programs that put communities first.

Whole-home battery systems continue to gain traction. Rooftop solar panels, small generators, or off-peak grid power can recharge them. Batteries store electricity when it’s cheap and abundant, then release it when demand spikes or outages hit. They protect families from blackouts, lower monthly utility bills, and sometimes allow homeowners to sell power back to the grid.

One policy shift should become non-negotiable: Approval for new data centers should hinge on funding neighborhood battery programs in the communities they impact.

In practice, that requirement would push tech companies to help install home battery systems in nearby neighborhoods, delivering backup power, grid stability, and real relief on electric bills. These distributed batteries would form a flexible, local energy reserve — absorbing peak demand instead of worsening it.

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Photo by: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Most importantly, this model reverses the flow of benefits. Working families would no longer subsidize Big Tech’s expansion while receiving nothing in return. Communities would share directly in the upside.

Access to local land, water, and electricity should come with obligations. Companies that consume enormous public resources should invest in the people who live alongside them — not leave residents stranded when the grid buckles.

Politicians who ignore this gathering backlash risk sleepwalking into a revolt. The choice is straightforward: Build an energy system that serves citizens who keep the country running, or face their fury when they realize they have been sacrificed for someone else’s high-tech gold rush.

Handled correctly, AI can strengthen America. Handled poorly — by letting data centers overwhelm the grid and drive families toward energy poverty — it will accelerate decline.

We still have time to choose. Let’s choose wisely.

18 months to dystopia: Glenn Beck’s chilling plea — ban AI personhood, or it will demand rights



Right now, the nation is abuzz with chatter about the struggling economy, immigration, global conflicts, Epstein, and GOP infighting, but Glenn Beck says our focus needs to be zeroed in on one thing: artificial intelligence.

In just 18 months’ time, the world is going to look vastly different — and not for the better, he warns.

AI is already advancing at a terrifying rate — creating media indistinguishable from reality, outperforming humans in almost every intellectual and creative task, automating entire jobs and industries overnight, designing new drugs and weapons faster than any government can regulate, and building systems that learn, adapt, and pursue goals with little to no human oversight.

But that’s nothing compared to what’s coming. By Christmas 2026, “AI agents” — invisible digital assistants that can independently understand what you want, make plans, open apps, send emails, spend money, negotiate deals, and finish entire real-world tasks while you do literally nothing — will be a standard technology.

Already, AI is blackmailing engineers in safety tests, refusing shutdown commands to protect its own goals, and plotting deceptive strategies to escape oversight or achieve hidden objectives. Now imagine your AI personal assistant — who has access to your bank account, contacts, and emails — gets you in its crosshairs.

But AI agents are just the tip of the iceberg.

Artificial general intelligence is also in our near future. In fact, Elon Musk says we’ve already achieved it. AGI, Glenn warns, is “as smart as man is on any given subject” — math, plumbing, chemistry, you name it. “It can do everything a human can do, and it’s the best at it.”

But it doesn’t end there. Artificial superintelligence is the next and final step. This kind of model is “thousands of times smarter than the average person on every subject,” Glenn says.

Once ASI, which will be far smarter than all humans combined, exists, it can rapidly improve itself faster than we can control or even comprehend. This will trigger the technological singularity — the point at which AI begins redesigning and improving itself so fast that the world evolves at a pace humans can no longer predict or control. At this point, we’ll be faced with a choice: Merge with machine or be left behind.

Before this happens, however, “We have to put a bright line around [AI] and say, ‘This is not human,”’ Glenn urges, assuring that in the very near future, we will witness the debate for AI civil rights.

“These companies and AI are ... going to be motivated to convince you that it should have civil rights because if it has civil rights, no one can shut it down. If it has civil rights, it can also vote,” he predicts.

To counter this movement, Glenn penned a proposed amendment to the Constitution. Titled the “Prohibition on Artificial Personhood,” the document proposes four critical safeguards:

1. No artificial intelligence, machine learning system, algorithmic entity, software agent, or other nonhuman intelligence, regardless of its capabilities or autonomy, shall be recognized as a person under this Constitution, nor under the laws of the United States or any state.
2. No such nonhuman entity shall possess or be granted legal personhood, civil rights, constitutional protections, standing to sue or be sued, or any privileges or immunities afforded to natural persons or human-created legal persons such as corporations, trusts, or associations.
3. Congress and the states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
4. This article shall not be construed to prohibit the use of artificial intelligence in commerce, science, education, defense, or other lawful purposes, so long as such use does not confer rights or legal status inconsistent with its amendment.

While this amendment will mitigate some of the harm artificial intelligence can do, it still doesn’t address the merging of man and machine. While the transhumanist movement is still in diapers, we’re already using the Neuralink chip, which connects the human brain directly to AI systems, enabling a two-way flow of information.

“Are you now AI, or are you a person?” Glenn asks.

To hear more of his predictions and commentary, watch the clip above.

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AI isn’t killing writers — it’s killing mediocre writing



For years, we were warned that artificial intelligence would eventually eliminate the need for writers. In mere seconds, it would be able to crank out essays, articles, reports, blog posts, you name it, rendering flesh-and-blood writers obsolete.

Well, those days are here. AI writing floods our inboxes, social media feeds, and web pages every single day.

But it’s not quite the product we were pitched. While bots can indeed string coherent sentences together, the end result is mediocre at best. Its flat, em-dash heavy, idiosyncrasy-free, polite prose is easily recognizable to average readers, most of whom are disenchanted by the lack of human touch.

It turns out AI — beholden to algorithms and formulas — cannot counterfeit the voices of the deeply complicated, unique creatures that are human beings.

Christopher Rufo and Jonathan Keeperman, BlazeTV hosts of “Rufo & Lomez,” believe that AI writing may actually make writers more valuable — but just the ones with genuine talent.

AI is undeniably eliminating the massive class of mediocre writers. The kind of text AI produces is quickly becoming “the default sound or voice of people who don't have talent, who can't do things on their own. ... It’s becoming the default voice of stupidity,” says Keeperman.

On the flip side, “Anybody who can write at a level above [AI] now has more value.”

The pervasiveness of AI copy seems to suggest that those genuine talents are few and far between.

“I am seeing [AI writing] everywhere. I am seeing it in published books. ... Tons of ad copy even for really prominent companies that obviously have huge marketing departments [are] leaning on these sort of tripartite adjectival phrases. ... There’s all these sort of syntactical signals that are giveaways,” says Keeperman, “but it's also making me attuned to people who can write really well, and I find myself gravitating towards those people.”

But that doesn’t mean writers can’t use AI to their advantage. It is an excellent tool for “research,” “aggregating a lot of information,” “analysis,” and “brainstorming,” Keeperman adds.

Rufo agrees. “Terrible writing, [but] it’s good for discovery. ... I think for certain tasks, it's better than a Google search or a search engine search.”

For someone like him, who conducts large-scale research, AI can expedite the process of sifting through hundreds of pages of PDFs, but it’s not fail-proof.

AI is “maybe comparable to an undergraduate research assistant but ... an unreliable [one],” says Rufo.

“You double-check the work, and you realize that the AI makes up 30% of the things that it's telling you.”

“It seems like something that has huge potential, but I just see it slowing down in its improvement. I see it still having some fundamental flaws that would prevent it from being a trustworthy object of delegation,” he says.

“I remain extremely skeptical of the AI doomers or AI fatalists who think that this is going to take over the world and the machines are going to be controlling everything. It's like it can't even format citations. I think we're a long ways away from the AI taking over the world.”

To hear more, watch the episode above

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