The Waymo effect: how AI is quietly making research less collaborative
The author explores the 'Waymo effect,' a phenomenon where frictionless, automated technologies reduce the necessity for human interaction. This shift may inadvertently discourage collaboration and social engagement in professional and research environments.
Why it matters
It highlights the unintended psychological and social consequences of integrating automation into daily life, potentially eroding the collaborative nature of human work.
How frictionless technologies teach us to prefer our own company – and why research leaders should worry.
On a recent trip to San Francisco I did the thing that every visitor to San Francisco now does: I summoned a car with no one in it.
The Waymo arrived with the serene confidence of a machine that has never once worried about where to find parking, and I climbed into the back seat, glanced instinctively at the driver’s seat to say hello, and found myself nodding politely at an empty chair. The steering wheel turned itself. I have spent a reasonable portion of my life thinking about counterintuitive aspects of physics, but that did not help me with the mild existential vertigo of watching a steering wheel moving on its own – an unseen driver responsible for my safety.
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