Sure, I’m a new empty nester on a personal transformation journey from paranoid technophobe to occasional AI user. But I’m also an author and freelance editor, and this past week I had somewhat of a professional identity crisis. 

Here’s what happened. 

I was minding my own business, following the schedule that Claude made for me, when I got an email from LinkedIn about a potential job match. The job? 

Editing AI-generated content to make it sound more human. 

Kinda cool on the surface, right? A cutting-edge position that didn’t even exist until a few years ago, right in my wheelhouse of content editing. 

But then I thought about it. I weighed it against my values. Would I feel okay essentially tricking my fellow humans? 

And how long will positions like that be around? There’s already a company called Sinceerly that uses AI tools to undo email writing that sounds too much like AI. That’s right, it uses AI to undo AI. Craziness.

I imagine that other companies like this are popping up all over the place. 

So how long will it be before humans are completely out of the loop? Hence my professional crisis.

I think I’ll just keep writing personal content, so you know it’s not AI. I’ll tell you about our new puppy, our kids being grown, the challenges of farm life, and how much I love coffee. 

Because I think that as we go deeper into the AI revolution, the only way to sound more human is to, you know, actually be human.  

Here are some other things I’m thinking about this week…

---

Something New:

• Brain implant in trials to treat depression. Motif Neurotech just got FDA approval to test its brain-computer interface in humans who suffer from treatment resistant depression. The device will be implanted into the skull bone during an outpatient procedure that only takes twenty minutes. Easy peasy. Run some errands, get a brain implant, ditch the psych meds. A tempting deal.  

Something Old:

• The Pelican Brief (1993). Based on the book by John Grisham, The Pelican Brief is about a law student (played by Julia Roberts) who writes a paper implicating the highest levels of government in deadly corruption. Anyone who sees the printed brief is either killed or silenced. If The Pelican Brief was made today, she probably would have used Google Docs and the whole brief would’ve been in the cloud, making it difficult for the antagonists to destroy evidence. Still, a compelling movie to watch if you haven’t seen it lately.

Something Inspiring:

• Cyborg botany. Cyborg botany hinges on the idea that plants emit electrochemical signals similar to those of electronic devices. Hook them up and you get a plant-electronic hybrid, which can also be integrated with AI. One of the goals? Increasing our interactions with plants, using sensors to hear what they’re “saying.” Farmers and researchers are then able to custom-treat what the plants need, among other cool applications. Bring on the talking cyborg tomatoes. I’m here for it.

---

Okay, that’s all for now. Join me here next week for more.