The explosion of AI-written content is sparking debates over how to handle op-eds like the one that investor Stan Druckenmiller wrote for the Wall Street Journal using AI, which sparked a response from his editor, and much debate about what’s appropriate. (My take, with strong caveats, is that editors are to blame if a piece feels manufactured, predictable, and devoid of personality. I also debated the topic yesterday on BBC’s The Media Show.)
I’ve been asking people how AI is shaping what they consume and create. At a party for David Booth’s terrific book Stay Calm earlier this week, a prominent academic told me he’s now using AI up to 10 hours every day, admitting he’s both obsessed and worried about what it can do.
But Booth, a pioneer of index investing and founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, is a fine example of what doesn’t change. His book tells a story that only he can tell—how he went from a shoe salesman in Kansas to a $1 trillion asset manager—and it synthesizes a philosophy of investing that he’s discussed and shared for decades.
Did he use a ghostwriter or AI? If he did, you wouldn’t know it.
What’s emerging from my conversations:
AI leaves leaders craving a good read. CEOs tell me they’re reading fewer books and reports because of AI, and that worries them. They’re not alone. About 40% of Americans didn’t read a book last year. One CEO in financial services told me that they’re now trying to read more the old-fashioned way. “I’m paid to think,” they told me, “and I realized I’m losing the nuance and originality of an argument when I read these summaries. A slower read, a deeper read, gives you more time to digest and come to your own conclusions.”
We value human creativity. I spoke yesterday with Andy Hunter, CEO of Bookshop.org, which acts as an e-commerce platform for 90% of the country’s 3,400+ independent booksellers—a category that’s booming, by the way. He uses AI for code review but not customer recommendations. He worries less about slop than fraud, as he’s seeing a lot of AI-generated books created on the spot to capitalize on search trends. “There’s a lot of garbage content being created to trick people into buying it; I don’t think Amazon is doing a good enough job of protecting their customers from that,” he told me. “We want human beings to recommend books to other human beings. That’s what independent bookstores do. The solution to AI slop is human curation, human creation.”
When everyone’s better, it’s hard to be the best. The baseline for content and communication is now around B+. Anyone can tell a coherent story. But having the tools to create a Hollywood movie on an iPhone doesn’t make you a great director any more than the ability to spit out a column makes you a great thought leader. AI expands the mushy middle, where nobody wants to be. As David Meadvin, CEO of One Strategy Group, puts it: “I think the right question to ask here is whether AI is making you a little bit more ordinary.”
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
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CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.
