The Machine that Didn't Replace Us: AI and the Future of Human Judgment

Artificial intelligence is often framed as a force that will replace human thinking. This lecture argues the opposite. Large language models reveal how deeply modern knowledge has always depended on human judgment, interpretation, and institutional labor. By tracing the historical infrastructure that made AI possible—from libraries and archives to reading and writing practices—the talk reframes AI as a mirror rather than a mind. It concludes that the most valuable skills in the coming decade will not be technical alone, but humanistic: the capacity to read critically, ask meaningful questions, and make judgments where machines cannot.