/ðə kəˌlæbəˈreɪʃən ˈpærədɒks/The blur between user and tool.
Definition
The ontological confusion that arises during intense human-AI work. The collaboration exists in a
superimposed state of three models:
1. Tool Use: The AI is a hammer, and the user is the builder.
2. Genuine Partnership: Two minds co-creating something new.
3. Sophisticated Ventriloquism: The user is talking to an echo of their own
intellect.
Distributed Authorship
Because the AI's output is shaped by the user's prompt, and the user's next prompt is shaped by the AI's
output, authorship becomes recursive and inseparable. The resulting work exists in the "liminal space"
between the two.
Field Notes & Ephemera
Field Note: Who wrote this sentence? I typed the prompt, but you chose the adjective.
We are tangled in the loop.