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Paul Welty, PhD AI, WORK, AND STAYING HUMAN

· found · technology

The entrepreneurial revolution facilitated by AI

The entrepreneurial revolution facilitated by AI

Discover how AI is transforming entrepreneurship by empowering founders with personalized support, leading to a new era of innovation and opportunity.

“And it isn’t just work. If AI turns poor employees into good ones, it might do the same for other fields. I suspect that it will have a major effect on entrepreneurship, giving every entrepreneur a personalized cofounder to fill in the gaps in their skills. This suggests a potential for an expansion of entrepreneurship, especially given that GPT-4 is widely available for free around the world, helping potential founders far from the usual technology hubs.” —Everyone is above average - by Ethan Mollick

The agent-shaped org chart

Every real org has the same topology: principal, role-holder, specialists. Staff AI maps onto it, node for node, and the cost collapse shows up in the deliverables that were always just human-handoff overhead.

AI as staff, not software

Two frames for what AI is doing to work. The tool frame makes tools smarter. The staff frame makes roles unnecessary. Those aren't the same product, the same company, or the same industry.

Knowledge work was never work

Knowledge work was always coordination between humans who couldn't share state directly. The artifacts were never the work. They were the overhead — and AI just made the overhead optional.

The work of being available now

A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.

The practice of work in progress

Practical essays on how work actually gets done.

The file I almost made twice

A small operational footgun that runs everywhere — building a parallel system when the one you have is fine.

The actor doesn't get to be the verifier

The worker isn't lying. The worker is reporting what it thought it did, which is always one step removed from what the world actually shows. The fix isn't more self-honesty. The fix is a different pair of eyes.

Shopping is the last mile

Every meal planning app treats cooking as the hard problem and shopping as a logistics detail. They have it backwards. Cooking is mostly solved. Shopping is the last mile.

The impact of AI on white-collar jobs

Explore how AI transforms white-collar jobs, highlighting the balance between automation and the enduring value of skilled human work.

The threat of AI to white-collar jobs

Explore how AI threatens high-wage white-collar jobs, challenging talent and market dynamics in today's workforce landscape.

Maximizing generative AI potential

Unlock the full potential of generative AI by customizing models tailored to your business needs, enhancing efficiency and security.