Are we in charge of our AI tools or are they in charge of us?

53 snips

Feb 25, 2026

Guest

Nita Farahany

Guest

Eric Topol

Nita Farahany, law and philosophy professor specializing in cognitive liberty and mental privacy. Eric Topol, medical researcher and digital medicine pioneer. They debate whether AI controls our decisions, how AI changes medical practice and skills, the risks of de-skilling, and what we lose when creative work is ceded to tools.

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INSIGHT

Medical AI Performance Remains Unclear

Medical AI performance vs doctors is unclear because studies show mixed outcomes and hybrid use creates fuzzy results.
Eric Topol says some studies show AI outperforms doctors, but reasons (automation bias, poor grounding) remain uncertain.

INSIGHT

Doctors Misuse AI In Both Directions

Doctors' interactions with AI vary: some override correct AI and accept incorrect AI, creating noise.
Eric Topol notes lower-performing doctors tend to accept AI suggestions while experts sometimes reject good AI input.

INSIGHT

U Shaped Skill Curve With AI Assistance

Human-AI teaming shows a U-shaped effect: below-average users improve, mid-level may worsen, top experts gain most.
Azeem Azhar and examples like Andrej Karpathy illustrate experts handing tasks to AI and pushing limits further.

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Welcome to Exponential View, the show where I explore how exponential technologies such as AI are reshaping our future. I've been studying AI and exponential technologies at the frontier for over ten years.

Each week, I share some of my analysis or speak with an expert guest to make light of a particular topic.

To keep up with the Exponential transition, subscribe to this channel or to my newsletter: https://www.exponentialview.co/
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This is the first episode of AI Vistas, a new series where I bring together people I trust and respect to tackle a major question collectively.

Today’s question: are we in charge of our AI tools, or are they in charge of us?

Joining me are Nita Farahany, distinguished professor of law and philosophy at Duke University and a leading thinker on cognitive liberty and mental privacy; Eric Topol, founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and one of the world's most cited medical researchers; and Rohit Krishnan, engineer, former hedge fund manager, and AI builder. Moderating the conversation is Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic.

We covered:

(01:33) Introducing AI Vistas

(03:51) The AI agent that made a financial decision mid-drive

(05:48) What does it mean to act autonomously anymore?

(08:42) Why AI harms are rarer than you'd expect

(10:24) When AI outperforms doctors – and why that's complicated

(15:20) Constituent competence: the skill you must never offload

(18:50) De-skilling is already happening

(31:20) What can schools do better?

(42:50) AI slop and "hollow-ware"

(46:40) What is lost when AI does the creating?

(49:18) When a tool gets good enough, we hand it off

(50:11) Deliberate intent: keeping AI as a tool

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Where to find me:

Exponential View newsletter: https://www.exponentialview.co/
Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/azeem

Where to find Nick, Nita, Eric and Rohit:

Thinking Freely with Nita Farahany: https://nitafarahany.substack.com/
Ground Truths with Eric Topol: https://erictopol.substack.com/
Strange Loop Canon with Rohit Krishnan: https://www.strangeloopcanon.com/
The Most Interesting Reads with Nick Thompson: https://nxthompson.substack.com/

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