Are we trading human creativity for AI-driven efficiency?

Episode 233: Artificial intelligence is often sold as a gift — fewer tedious tasks, faster workflows, more time to focus on what really matters. From summarizing documents to organizing files, today’s tools promise to clear away the friction of daily work. And in many cases, they deliver. Few people entered their profession dreaming of merging PDFs or transcribing blurry documents.

But what happens when the mundane disappears?

In this episode, hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada explore a quieter concern raised in a recent Wall Street Journal column: the human brain isn’t built for nonstop high-level engagement. Those repetitive, low-intensity tasks many of us rush to eliminate may actually serve an important purpose. They create mental “lull time” — space for reflection, recovery and the kind of wandering thought that often leads to insight.

Kyte shares a personal example of using AI to speed up a long-term archival project. The tool dramatically reduced the time required, yet the work became more mentally intense and surprisingly exhausting. Instead of alternating between light and focused effort, he found himself operating at a sustained cognitive peak. The result? Greater output — and greater strain.

The conversation expands beyond individual experience. Drawing on examples from law enforcement, workplace analytics and even wearable technology that tracks stress, the hosts consider whether modern culture increasingly equates optimization with virtue. When every minute is measured and every task streamlined, do we unintentionally crowd out the mental recovery that judgment and imagination require?

They also examine broader implications. If automation concentrates production and wealth, what happens to our sense of usefulness and contribution? Work is not only about income, but it also shapes identity, purpose and belonging. How might those foundations shift in an age of accelerating technological change?

Scott Rada is a digital strategist with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Kyte is also the author of "Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way)."

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