The Moral Dilemmas of AI with Michael Inzlicht

<p>Mickey is BACK with two new papers he has co-authored, a bunch of opinions, and a very unwelcome idea: maybe the problem with AI isn't that it doesn't work but that it works too well!</p><p>The first paper, <em>Against Frictionless AI,</em> argues that AI assistance and its ability to take away the effort from thinking, writing, and smooth out social(like) interactions could be robbing those activities of the very thing that makes them worthwhile.</p><p>The second paper is a more empirical investigation that presents a bunch of studies examining the topic of the (alleged) moralisation of AI. <em>Some</em> findings suggest that opposition to AI among <em>some</em> people isn't really about risks or trade-offs but rather about non-negotiable sacred moral values. Who knew?</p><p>We also discuss effort justification, reproducible research, robosexual allyship, and just how much humanity remains within the cyborg Matthew Browne.</p><p>And remember... It's just like our opinion, man!</p><h3><strong>Links</strong></h3><ul><li><a href="https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/decoding-academia-34-empathetic-ais-patreon-series" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Decoding Academia 34: Empathetic AIs? (Patreon Series)</a></li><li><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/550b09eae4b0147d03eda40d/t/67815fc964565b123394799f/1736531972775/Third-party-evaluators-perceive-AI-as-more-compassionate-than-expert-humans.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ovsyannikova, D., Oldemburgo de Mello, V., &amp; Inzlicht, M. (2025). </a><em><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/550b09eae4b0147d03eda40d/t/67815fc964565b123394799f/1736531972775/Third-party-evaluators-perceive-AI-as-more-compassionate-than-expert-humans.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans</a></em><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/550b09eae4b0147d03eda40d/t/67815fc964565b123394799f/1736531972775/Third-party-evaluators-perceive-AI-as-more-compassionate-than-expert-humans.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">. Communications Psychology, 3, Article 4.</a></li><li><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/550b09eae4b0147d03eda40d/t/699e22286d287a6d39bf6f74/1771971127880/Against-frictionless-AI.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Zohar, E., Bloom, P., &amp; Inzlicht, M. (2026). </a><em><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/550b09eae4b0147d03eda40d/t/699e22286d287a6d39bf6f74/1771971127880/Against-frictionless-AI.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Against frictionless AI</a></em><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/550b09eae4b0147d03eda40d/t/699e22286d287a6d39bf6f74/1771971127880/Against-frictionless-AI.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">. Communications Psychology, 4, Article 39.</a></li><li><a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5mwre_v10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Oldemburgo de Mello, V., Côté, É., Ayad, R., Inbar, Y., Plaks, J., &amp; Inzlicht, M. (2026). </a><em><a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5mwre_v10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The moralization of artificial intelligence</a></em><a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5mwre_v10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> (Manuscript under review).</a></li><li>Paul Bloom's <em>Small Potatoes</em> Substack</li><li><a href="https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net/p/my-friend-thinks-its-a-good-idea?utm_source=publication-search" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">- My friend thinks it's a good idea for us to spend most of our time with AI companions</a></li><li><a href="https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net/p/is-it-irresponsible-for-academics?utm_source=publication-search" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">- Is it irresponsible for academics to refuse to use AI?</a></li><li>Mickey's <em>Speak Now Regret Later</em> Substack </li><li><a href="https://www.speakandregret.michaelinzlicht.com/p/ai-alarmists-trade-on-fear-not-facts?utm_source=publication-search" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">- AI Alarmism Trades on Fear, Not Facts</a></li><li><a href="https://x.com/minzlicht/status/2031165209352569172?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mickey's provocative tweet on his recent paper</a></li><li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/interview-with-michael-inzlicht-on-the-replication/id1531266667?i=1000562943883" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DTG Previous Interview with Mickey on the Replication Crisis, Mindfulness, and Responsible Heterodoxy</a></li><li><a href="https://blog.andymasley.com/p/empire-of-ai-is-wildly-misleading" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Andy Masley Substack debunking the AI water usage claims</a></li><li><a href="https://blog.andymasley.com/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversations-about?open=false#%C2%A7data-centers-use-too-much-energy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Andy Masley Substack: Using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment - a cheat sheet</a></li><li><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.11391" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pataranutaporn, P., Karny, S., Archiwaranguprok, C., Albrecht, C., Liu, A. R., &amp; Maes, P. (2025). </a><em><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.11391" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“My Boyfriend is AI”: A computational analysis of human–AI companionship in Reddit’s AI community</a></em><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.11391" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">. arXiv.</a></li><li><a href="https://substack.com/@royschulman/note/c-226167593" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Critical response to Mickey's paper from Roy Schulam on Substack</a></li></ul><br />