Depth is the Human Edge

Jessica and Kimberly just had a paper accepted for publication in Frontiers in Education. So today, they're sharing what they've learned.

The big idea is that AI is not a neutral tool. It's a cultural intermediary. Just like a human translator doesn't swap words one for one, AI mediates the way we understand the world. It shapes what we write, what we trust, and what we treat as true. And most of us have no idea that's happening.

They walk through the research behind their framework, talk about what AI actually does well (fluency and accuracy), and where it falls short (depth, nuance, relational intelligence). And they share real examples from their work that show what it looks like when we hand over too much of our thinking to a machine.

Topics Covered

• What it means to treat AI as a cultural intermediary and why that framing changes everything
• The difference between accuracy, fluency, and depth in writing, and why AI can only get you so far
• How the same consulting firm that charged thousands of dollars produced a report that ChatGPT could replicate in minutes
• What a capability map for AI literacy looks like, from emerging to proficient
• Why relational intelligence is the human edge that AI cannot replicate
• How AI is widening the distance between people and what we lose when we stop talking to each other
• The social media influencer as a double intermediary, and what that means for kids whose brains aren't fully developed yet
• Why publishing in an AI-focused field is its own kind of pit

Referenced in This Episode

• The "Attention Is All You Need" paper and the transformer architecture
• Timnit Gebru and the Stochastic Parrots paper
• Taylor & Francis and the $75 million content licensing deal with AI companies