Topher Morrison

AI isn’t just making you dumb, it’s sucking your soul.

The last domino has fallen in the world of AI and safety.

Anthropic, the AI company who brags about being the only AI company with “soul” has caved under pressure from the Trump administration and will be releasing their guardrails to prevent losing their government contract.

But I’m not worried about them… I’m worried about us.

I read up to 120 books each year. If I start a book I don’t enjoy, I will still finish it, because it forces me to find the good and beneficial in something I would otherwise dismiss.

But last year, I started 4 books and stopped inside of the first few chapters. Why? Because they were AI created slop. No thought-leadership, just thoughtless AI generated text.

A good friend of mine made a post on social media last week about “being authentic.” The entire post was created by AI. It was the exact opposite of authenticity.

Just this week, I was asking someone I admire and respect for some personal advice. It wasn’t a big ask either. Maybe 20 minutes of her time. Her response was generated by ChatGPT.

It left me feeling like I was a part of the mundane in the all too popular AI pledge: “Automate the mundane, humanize the exceptional.”

We all know that if we stop using a muscle it will atrophy. And I’ve already seen trends in society where people are losing their ability to think for themselves.

They are turning to AI to make decisions that should require slow thinking, but instead, outsource their thoughts to AI (I’m guilty of doing this myself).

But that’s not the scariest part.

We aren’t just losing our ability to think critically, we are losing our soul, just like Anthropic. Maybe we aren’t doing it for money like they are (although some surely are), but we are likely all guilty of trying to increase our margins in some capacity. Maybe our margins are time, efficiency, speed, productivity...

But is it worth it? If we are becoming a world where we let AI do our thinking for us - a world where we let AI give advice to our friends, or serve as a proxy for our emotions, then this is a world I don’t want to live in.

I want real. I’m learning to loathe the artificial.

24 hours in London for KnightScale Partners with 🤝

Took a quick trip for an intimate lunch to support a group of founders actively building and scaling their businesses.

No agenda.
No presentations.

Just thoughtful conversations between founders who have the conversations to go with the scars of running a company.

That’s what KnightScale Partners is about. Speaking openly about decisions, trade-offs, and the realities behind growth and exits.

Where should we have our next KnightScale Partners networking event?

Being right is overrated.

Being willing to be wrong? That’s where real power is.

Most of us don’t lose debates because we lack evidence. We lose because we cling to our feelings.

When something challenges what we believe, we don’t analyze it… we defend it. We dig in deeper.

Congrats! You’ve just activated the Backfire Effect. No winners, only two people convinced the other is clueless.

Here’s the truth nobody enjoys hearing:
Your ego is the biggest bottleneck to your personal and professional growth.

The people who succeed aren’t the ones who are always right.
They’re the ones who can say, “I might have this wrong” without needing medical assistance afterward.

So ask yourself:

Could I be wrong?
And most importantly: am I willing to be wrong?

New game… 🥁
Where’s the ?

It’s easy. Way easier than finding Waldo.

I thought I’d read a genuinely thoughtful comment on my recent raccoon post on LinkedIn. Then I saw one right below that was almost identical.

Yep. AI.

Instant ick.

AI should refine your thoughts, not replace them.

If you’re outsourcing your point of view instead of responding honestly, and think people can’t tell... we can.

The irony?
Both comments came from social media “experts.” LOL.

Rant over. Now I need a publisher 😂