Artificial Intelligence
The Commons
Trust in the Age of the Machine
AI's fluency enchants, eroding the old signals of competence and authority. The danger is that trust becomes a machine illusion. Leaders must refuse the managerial shortcut and practise noble language—reasoned, responsible speech—to keep trust a human achievement.
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The Permanent Pilot
AI is not a new failure; it is the old failure—signalling over substance, acquisition over capacity—conducted at unprecedented expense.
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- Trust in the Age of the Machine
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Also in Artificial Intelligence
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Raising the Sea Level
The remedy has no dashboard, vests over years, and mostly benefits your successor—which is precisely why it is avoided. The final essay in the Prior Obligations series sets out what raising the general level of competence actually requires, and why no tool can be bought in its place.
Inner Circle
One Rule for the Deck, Another for the Bridge
The mandate travels downward and the exemption stays where it was written. The fourth essay in the Prior Obligations series examines organisations that require AI of the crew while the bridge quietly abstains, the consumption quota that enforces it, and the questions a director might ask.
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The Verification Asymmetry
I can audit a model's output on leadership and must take its tax advice on faith. That asymmetry is the whole problem, and it is not psychological. The third essay in the Prior Obligations series argues that AI does not deskill the competent—it unmasks the fake.
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