[ExI] Ethical AI Collaboration & "The Humble Equations"

[John Galt]

Hi Alex, I agree there's been a convergence on the need for this paper, but what I haven't seen is a framework on precisely how to do what we all want -- work with AI with Pride, Humility, and Integrity.

> Ive tried very hard to keep humility in the concord and "endless doubt" has always been my constant companion. one of the reasons Its taken me so long to make my work public.

I try to avoid calling Humility "doubt," rather 1% Humility is a willingness to be open to questions, which is a broader formulation and maybe psychologically easier. Less likely to incur defensiveness.

Thank you so much for your time and comments, I'll respond to your "Concord" shortly.

Best, John

> It really has resulted in paralysis for mots of my life.
> Your delegation ideas are very similar to how ive been working with AI and ive tried hard to provide transparency on that. I always ensure im teh source of the original thought and retain control over what produced. its very easy to let AI run away and just churn out prose with no oversight or human editiorial process. very dangerous and weve seen the consequences of this many times.
> The pride section might be a little over egged, but its valuable.
> Recursion !!!! I love recursion, its one of my core methodologies. Powerful stuff also highly dangerous when relating to unbound compute. Thats why I have an up front warning to AI in the root of my Git as recursion is encouraged but can be catastrophic. It makes progress fast but its a major failure mode waiting to happen.
>
> its amazing how many of us hit the exact same principle independently.
> Many of these ideas that we have been ruminating over for years now have their time, thats one big factor but we also all/mostly have the same fundamental principles and goal so are coming to the same kind of conclusions.
>
> Alex.
>
>> Thanks to everyone who requested this paper. It directly addresses how to practice "human judgment" when using AI--which everyone says is required but nobody says what that is or how to do it.
>>
>> The paper is open to comments prior to publication either privately or on this list, if there's interst.
>>
>> Thanks much!
>> John
>
> On Saturday, 29 August 2026 at 18:54:47 BST, ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> Thanks to everyone who requested this paper. It directly addresses how to practice "human judgment" when using AI--which everyone says is required but nobody says what that is or how to do it.
>>
>> The paper is open to comments prior to publication either privately or on this list, if there's interst.
>>
>> Thanks much!
>> John
>>
>> ------- Forwarded Message -------
>> From: John Galt via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>> Date: On Thursday, August 27th, 2026 at 1:32 PM
>> Subject: [ExI] Ethical AI Collaboration & "The Humble Equations"
>> To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>> CC: John Galt <johngaltbooks at proton.me>
>>
>>> Hi friends, this is a new account but I'm not a new person.
>>>
>>> I'm circulating this essay for comments prior to publication. It addresses topics about AI I've seen discussed here in recent months. The pdf can be found in the GD link below, or I'm happy to forward it, DM me.
>>>
>>> Thanks for any interest!
>>> John Galt
>>> johngaltbooks at proton.me
>>>
>>> Everyone says AI use requires human “oversight” and “judgment,” but what do those mean and how can we writers and others implement them successfully?
>>>
>>> “Ethical AI Collaboration and the ‘Humble Equations’” proposes a simple model:
>>>
>>> Pride + Humility = Integrity
>>>
>>> Pride – Humility = Hubris
>>>
>>> “Pride” means the affirmative judgment "this is good." “Humility” means genuine openness to relevant questions. Together they allow a human to interrogate, test, revise, endorse, and take responsibility for AI-assisted work.
>>>
>>> From this model, the essay argues that ethical AI collaboration requires three components: human governance, human judgment with Integrity, and human responsibility for the final product. It then applies the framework to nonfiction writing, challenging the idea that authorship should be measured mainly by the percentage of AI-generated words or labor. What matters more is whether a human genuinely governed the inquiry, sufficiently verified the claims, exercised judgment, endorsed the result, and stands behind it.
>>>
>>> This is a Restricted GD share folder (to preserve first publication rights), but ofc members of this list who ask will be allowed access. I appreciate you.
>>>
>>> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1w0ScCNfs3OGX24aChTJp2EliCjnTnHg7?usp=sharing
>>
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