Our AI policy
Yes, we have one.
Everyone and their grandmother is using AI. It's everywhere: a full-blown plague of "Claude, write me an essay on the psychology of self-esteem." And look, it would probably be a great output. Clean. Structured. Accurate.
Just… a little soulless.
It's not quite the same as reading someone navigate five conflicting philosophical frameworks while also trying to make sense of something that happened to them in 2017 that they still can't fully explain. That specific kind of mess is what we're here for. Read three posts on this blog and you'll feel the difference yourself.
So no, we don't use AI to generate our posts. The ideas, arguments, structure, and first drafts are all human. The thinking, the weird tangents, the overly specific references: all human.
But we're not AI-free either
Here's where we actually use it.
Editing passes
Talking about what being human actually looks like is already messy. That's kind of the whole point.
The last thing we want is for the writing to be messy too.
So yes, we use AI as a final editing pass. Not to rewrite. Not to generate ideas. Not to clean up the thinking.
Just to make sure the text lands cleanly, reads clearly, and doesn't trip you up when you're trying to actually take something in.
We'll be honest: we traded a tiny bit of raw voice for readability. Fair deal, we think, when the subject matter is already asking a lot of you.
Also, full disclosure: our founder's brain works in genuinely mysterious ways. Thoughts teleport. Then come back. We love her for it, but it does mean the editing layer earns its keep.
Audio versions
Turns out people like to listen. Commuting, running, pretending to fold laundry. We get it. So for now, the audio is AI-generated for Spotify. Maybe one day we build a real podcast. Maybe.
Visual presentations
For the more practical, teach-me-something posts, AI helps us put the slides together. Good for the people who want the TL;DR with diagrams.
A note on our illustrations
We use an open illustration tool made by Ian, a designer who puts his work out there freely for anyone to use. We adapted it to make our visuals feel like ours, and honestly, we just think people who see our work should know he exists. Thanks for making our essays look more graceful, Ian.
That's it. That's the whole list.