Essays on trust, brand, and what AI is doing to both.
Trust as Infrastructure
A newspaper automated the one thing it had left to sell, then found out what the machine said afterward.
The LA Times shipped an AI writing counterpoints faster than its editors could read. Oversight that can't keep pace with output is a backlog with a nicer name.
Craft
Pixel 10 signs every photo it takes. Seeing the signature takes three taps and a scroll.
Trust as Infrastructure
The fastest-growing news channel is the one people trust least, and your credibility has to survive the trip.
Craft
The Not By AI badge permits ten percent AI, verifies nothing, and costs $99.
Trust as Infrastructure
An assistant rewrote a grieving family's words, credited the BBC, and nobody at the BBC knew.
Craft
The credential was genuine, the image was fabricated, and platforms are wiring disclosure into reach.
Trust as Infrastructure
Two newspapers printed a summer reading list that nobody in the chain had actually read.
Human in the Loop
Polish used to prove effort. Now it indicates a machine make it.
Trust as Infrastructure
Social proof broke when the proof got cheap to fake.
Trust as Infrastructure
Every rebrand quietly admits the last version wasn't real.
Human in the Loop
What to say when a younger colleague asks how you decide.
Craft
Why faking human warmth reads as manipulation, not empathy
Trust as Infrastructure
Performed authenticity works, until someone audits it.
Trust as Infrastructure
Every model hallucinates. The architecture keeps it off your customer.
Trust as Infrastructure
Same chatbot. Same dashboard. Opposite outcome.
Craft
Why the shape signals 'machine' before anyone reads a word
Human in the Loop
The version where you keep your job and lose the meaning anyway
Trust as Infrastructure
Why consistency stopped setting you apart, and what does now
Craft
Why over-scripted events do the opposite of what you paid for
Human in the Loop
Why the silence after 'I used AI' isn't awkward. It's organized.
Trust as Infrastructure
Why denial isn't a defense, and what actually is
Craft
How frictionless design accidentally created perfect conditions for AI slop
Creative Technology
What happens when AI takes the clipboard instead of the conversation
Trust as Infrastructure
They opted out of the content arms race—and built something AI cannot replicate.
Trust as Infrastructure
When openness becomes a genre, it stops being honest
Craft
What audiences feel before you say a word — and what it's costing you
Trust as Infrastructure
Why your track record is the one line synthetic content can't cross
Trust as Infrastructure
Why 'authenticity' is actively dangerous in a synthetic world
Human in the Loop
A Three-Questions Audit for Transparent AI Usage
Trust as Infrastructure
Why the brands that survive the synthetic era won't be the ones that sound real — they'll be the ones that can prove it.
Creative Technology
Why ‘Blue Tech’ is the Next Frontier for Digital Twins and Spatial Computing
Creative Technology
A practical guide explaining generative AI concepts using an agency metaphor — for marketing professionals who need to understand the technology without building it.
The newsletter
Every other Friday, on how trust gets built and broken in a synthetic world. Written by someone who builds with these tools daily, and shows the receipts.