How artificial intelligence could be leading most humans into an inescapable trap.

Over the past year, I’ve had many disquieting realizations — that the American voter is more forgiving of insurrections than inflation, that being 37 means having one bad knee (and another not particularly good one), and that the New York Mets made a pact with Satan in the fall of 1986, for which subsequent generations of fans would eternally pay.

But my most unsettling epiphany may have been this: Robots can now do much of my job better than I can.

For a decade, I have made a living partly by synthesizing news articles and academic studies into accessible explainers, which white-collar workers could skim while pretending to do their jobs. The skills that this vocation requires — the capacity to rapidly digest text, craft clean copy, and sound like I know more about any given subject than I actually do — are ones that ChatGPT possesses in spades.

Worse, it can exercise these abilities far more efficiently than I can. ChatGPT requires five seconds and a speck of electricity to explain how President Donald Trump’s tariffs have impacted the dollar. To perform the same task, I need about 48 hours, six meals, 37 Twitter breaks, and at least three medications. And unlike myself, the chatbot can instantly rewrite its analysis in the voice of a pirate.

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