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When intelligence becomes cheap, judgment becomes expensive

Producing an answer and accepting responsibility for it are different economic activities.

BY GABRIEL NICOLAEV – CYGURU ·
When intelligence becomes cheap, judgment becomes expensive

The verification problem

A tool that produces plausible work quickly can move the bottleneck to review. Before changing a workflow, identify who can determine whether its output is correct and how much that verification costs. Speed has little value when errors are hard to detect.

Design around consequences

Tasks differ in reversibility. Drafting a headline and authorising a payment should not share the same approval logic. Good automation gives people visibility at consequential decisions, clear records and an effective way to intervene.

Where value can move

One useful strategic hypothesis is that advantage shifts toward proprietary context, distribution and accountable judgment as generic production becomes easier. Treat that as something to test against customers and margins, rather than a universal law.

Editorial photograph for illustration.

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