Amplification.
This is my AI x HI word for the past few weeks. Here is why:
Over the last few weeks, I found myself attending a series of professional events. AI was naturally “the talk of the town.”
Not just in sessions and keynotes. It was present in side conversations, coffee-break jokes, and casual comments exchanged between people trying to understand where all of this is heading.
As I wrap up this event series, what stays with me are two different episodes that I could not help but connect to the AI x HI exploration we have started here. In one of them, the relationship felt right. In the other, it felt strangely off.
And as I reflected on both experiences, I found myself wondering whether AI had amplified human intelligence — or quietly compressed it.
So here is what happened.
I sat in a session listening to a panel featuring a lineup of experienced and bright professionals. People with perspectives worth hearing. The kind of people you expect will spark interesting conversation simply by reacting to one another.
So I joined the session with excitement and anticipation.
And yet, as the discussion unfolded, it felt strangely flat.
Everything was polished. The moderator read perfectly formulated questions, and the panelists responded with pre-scripted answers. Even though English was a second language for everyone on stage, the expressions were perfect and the sentences impeccable.
But there was no real discussion.
No unexpected turn.
No moment where someone followed curiosity.
No tension between ideas.
No sense that the conversation itself was discovering something in real time.
Then, at the end, the moderator read concluding remarks and synthesized insights that had clearly been prepared in advance, polished with AI, and promptly printed on speaking cards.
So yes, the wording was perfect.
But something important had been optimized out of the interaction itself.
The expertise on stage was there. But what was missing was the genuine human conversation driven by curiosity and the exchange of ideas.
And that made me think of something interesting from a behavioral perspective.
When powerful new tools emerge, we naturally steer towards them first to eliminate friction, uncertainty, and imperfections. It is almost instinctive to try to smooth rough edges and optimize.
But in the process, we sometimes eliminate things that were never imperfections in the first place. Because perhaps not all friction is bad friction.
Sometimes spontaneity creates value.
Sometimes unpredictability creates meaning.
Sometimes, imperfect human interaction is exactly what amplifies a moment or an intellectual discovery.
In this case, in an effort to make expression more polished, the session had sacrificed something more important: the human process through which ideas evolve.
Instead of amplifying the people on stage, the AI x HI relationship had quietly compressed them.
I felt disappointed and, frankly, I cannot remember any of the points made — or rather read from speaking cards — during the session.
But then, in another moment, a completely different situation unfolded.
One of the events featured an extraordinary contributor — an artist, or as he describes himself, a “Troubadour, speaker & community-catalyst harmonizing humanity through music.” (look up Jurgis Didžiulis)
He was outstanding at it.
At one moment, all of us were sitting in a room in professional mode, listening seriously to serious content.
The next moment, we moved chairs aside to make extra space and were singing, dancing, and clapping.
I remember thinking how unusual it was to see a room full of serious professionals transform so quickly. Everywhere I turned, there were smiles from ear to ear.
This experience was not accidental.
It was designed. Technology almost certainly played a role in preparing it, shaping it, and reducing uncertainty.
But then the magic was unlocked by pure human capability:
reading the room
responding to people
improvising
allowing human instinct to lead... in real time
The script supported the human.
It amplified the human.
It amplified talent.
It amplified connection.
And suddenly, I realized that the difference between these two experiences was not AI use versus non-use.
Both involved AI.
Both involved preparation and design.
The difference was what AI was being asked to amplify. The first experience amplified smoothness and perfection. The second amplified curiosity, connection, and meaning.
And that stays in both the heart and the mind.
As I wrap up these weeks of travel and observation, I think I may have uncovered an important key to an AI x HI symbiosis that truly makes sense — one that strengthens the parts of ourselves we would least want to lose.
So this week, and perhaps for some weeks ahead, my word is:
amplification.
🗣 ME (90%): The observations, the curiosity, the behavioral interpretation & the meaning
🤖 AI (10%): Amplification through structure, stress-testing & editorial refinement