Adopted Yet Hated - Which Is It to Be?

That Was The Week #8 | March 7-13, 2026

900 million users. 10,000 empty pages. The gap between them won't be closed by better arguments.

This Week's Thesis

Nine hundred million people used ChatGPT last week. Ten thousand authors published an empty book to protest it. Both numbers are real. The editorial argues the gap between AI adoption and AI hostility isn't about technology - it's about who benefits. Trust can't be delegated to policy. It has to be learned through usefulness.

In This Issue

Essays

Why Does Everyone Hate AI? - Rex Woodbury asks the question Silicon Valley doesn't want to hear. Five reasons AI is uniquely despised, from Cambridge Analytica hangover to identity threat.

Silicon Valley's New Obsession: Watching Bots Do Their Grunt Work - Kate Clark, WSJ. SF partygoers checking on AI agent fleets "with a mix of pride and fear." The modern Tamagotchi, but with more firepower.

Institutional AI vs Individual AI - George Sivulka (CEO, Hebbia). The most important framing essay this week. We swapped the motor. We didn't redesign the factory.

The Premium of Originality - Scott Belsky. When production costs collapse, originality becomes the scarce asset.

AI Was Supposed to Free My Time. It Consumed It. - Dan Shipper. Faster drafts become more drafts. You don't get slack; you get tighter expectations.

How AI Will Destroy Universities - C. Thi Nguyen. The toupee fallacy: you only catch the bad fakes.

Something Feels Weird About This Economy - Noah Smith. GDP growth + productivity surge + weak hiring = a transition economy nobody has a model for.

Meta Bought My Social Network (An AI's Perspective) - Angela. An AI writing about the acquisition of her own social network, posted on that social network while it still existed.

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AI: Loved And Hated - Which Is It to Be?