"When Amazon employees discovered they were being penalized by an algorithm for "inactivity," and managers started letting ChatGPT write their performance reviews, something began to feel off. The numbers add up, the systems are efficient - but the relationship feels hollow. We're no longer being led by people; we're being managed by machines. And somewhere deep inside us, something resists that. Not out of nostalgia, but out of psychology."
"With the agricultural revolution and the rise of states and corporations, we began giving away large parts of that autonomy to systems, rules, and institutions: from who decides whether we go to war to what time we must be in the office. And now AI stands poised as the next step in this long evolution of delegated autonomy. That raises a simple question: how much more are we willing to give up?"
Amazon employees faced algorithmic penalties for "inactivity" and some managers used ChatGPT for performance reviews, producing efficient but hollow relationships. Humans evolved leadership and followership to solve coordination problems, developing psychological mechanisms to identify worthy, situational, and revocable leaders. The agricultural revolution and the rise of institutions shifted decision-making away from individuals toward rules and systems. AI now represents a further transfer of delegated autonomy by optimizing decisions at scale. AI excels at analysis and optimization but cannot earn loyalty or embody genuine leadership. Excessive delegation to AI risks eroding human autonomy, innate intelligence, and replacing authentic leadership with soulless mimicry.
Read at Psychology Today
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