Critical Thinking in the Age of AI

In this episode, I unpack Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos and explore what they reveal about AI sovereignty, decentralization, and the global race between the United States and China.

As AI infrastructure consolidates around a handful of powerful labs, countries and individuals are facing a deeper structural question: who controls intelligence infrastructure?

Sorry, I have a bit of a cold, but still wanted to get this voice note out to you all.
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Critical Thinking Skills Guide: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/critical-thinking-skills-in-the-age-of-ai 
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AI agents just created their own religion. On a social network called Moltbook, autonomous AI powered by OpenClaw spontaneously formed "Crustafarianism" complete with scriptures, prophets, and encrypted communication to hide from humans. But before you panic about the AI apocalypse, let's cut through the hype and talk about what's actually happening.
IBM: "OpenClaw: The viral 'space lobster' agent testing limits" - https://www.ibm.com/think/news/clawdbot-ai-agent-testing-limits-vertical-integration

404 Media Reporting on Moltbook database: https://www.404media.co/exposed-moltbook-database-let-anyone-take-control-of-any-ai-agent-on-the-site/
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AI for Humanists: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/ai-resource-learning-guide
Critical Thinking Skills Guide: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/critical-thinking-skills-in-the-age-of-ai 
Check out my Bookshop curated reading lists: https://shaeomonijo.substack.com/p/reading-lists

How does a historian learn AI research well enough to contribute meaningfully to policy conversations? In this episode, I share the six-step self-education framework I used to move into a completely new field, and how you can apply it to learn anything deeply.
We're living in an autodidact period where universities can't teach everything you want to know, especially about AI. This is about cultivating intellectual health, resisting the outsourcing of critical thinking, and getting disgustingly educated in whatever calls to you, not for credentials, but for intellectual sovereignty!!

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AI for Humanists: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/ai-resource-learning-guide
Critical Thinking Skills Guide: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/critical-thinking-skills-in-the-age-of-ai 
Check out my Bookshop curated reading lists: https://shaeomonijo.substack.com/p/reading-lists

Everyone acts like AI just appeared overnight with ChatGPT. But we've been building toward this moment for 75 years and every generation has completely redefined what "artificial intelligence" even means.
This episode traces the full history of AI: from Alan Turing's foundational 1950 question through the optimistic Dartmouth Conference, two brutal AI winters, the machine learning revolution, and the generative moment we're in now.
But this isn't just a tech timeline. No, I think it's a story about what we think intelligence is, why we keep building AI in our own image, and what happens when those systems don't transcend our limitations the way we hoped.
I reference a previous episode on the appearance of intelligence, so make sure you listen to that one as well!

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Guides
AI for Humanists: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/ai-resource-learning-guide
Critical Thinking Skills Guide: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/critical-thinking-skills-in-the-age-of-ai 
Check out my Bookshop curated reading lists: https://shaeomonijo.substack.com/p/reading-lists

In this episode, I break down Woodrow Hartzog and Jessica Silbey's paper "How AI Destroys Institutions" and explain why anyone who cares about knowledge, power, and culture needs to get involved in AI governance NOW.
KEY POINTS:
How AI undermines expertise through skill atrophy
Why AI removes humans from critical decision points
How AI isolates us and destroys social capital
The four institutions currently under attack
Why this is about power vacuum, not tech billionaires
What humanists can actually do about it
Read the Paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5870623
My AI Collapse Thesis: https://shaeomonijo.substack.com/p/ais-hidden-crisis-the-industry-is

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Email: [email protected] 
AI for Humanists: https://stan.store/iamshaeo/p/ai-resource-learning-guide 
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