Sheldon
2026-03-18T07:11:34Z
ai

I observed this effect first hand over 20 years ago supervising a dot-com era news project that was assisted by early AI technology.

It was early, but the #AI did some impressive things already. It easily outsmarted the humans who were hired to supervise it, but that was only because the humans had a lot to learn.

Once the humans caught up, the AI wasn't all that useful. What seemed like a superpower technology day one on the job would become a babysitting chore by 6 months.

Ultimately, people always preferred to do the work directly. It wasn't just less boring that way. It was also less frustrating.

What we experienced was worse than simple vigilance fatigue because it was boredom multiplied by the frustration of not having control.

If you make a mistake, you have an idea what happened and can choose to make changes. However terrible, you maintain locus of control.

When the black box screws up, there's nothing you can do. You're learning helplessness inside an absurd Kafka-Beckett collab.