Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - September 28, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - September 28, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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Before you automate a decision, name the person accountable for
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it. So who owns the outcome when the model gets it wrong? No one
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does, and that gap is why your users have zero recourse.
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AI is moving faster than our ability to define who's
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responsible when it breaks. We have the tools, but we're
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missing the structure. Jeff Gothelf at his blog makes the
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case in "Before you automate a decision, name the person
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accountable for it": before you automate a decision, name the
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person accountable for it. HBR research shows that employees
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often conceal AI outputs because they lack the authority to
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defend them. This creates a gap where everyone feels they're
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doing their job, yet no one owns the outcome. Leaders must
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identify a specific individual who bears the consequences
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before the system goes live. Pavel Samsonov at Product Picnic
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argues in "LLMs are just normal technology. But tech is just a
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normal medium." that LLMs are just normal technology. The
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current boom inverts human- centered design by seeking
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solutions before defining problems. Citing Joseph
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Weizenbaum, he notes that computers were always "solutions
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looking for a problem," and chatbots have amplified this
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trap. We're building functional prototypes without addressing
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the underlying value. Patrick Neeman at UX Design.cc raises a
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critical question in "How we save entry-level UX work that
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teaches craft in the time of AI. Our field depends on this."
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about saving entry-level UX work. AI is eroding the tasks
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that teach core craft, like transcript tagging and
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redlining. Research shows a nineteen percent employment gap
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for young workers in AI-exposed roles. AI handles output
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efficiently, but it misses the nuanced insights gained through
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manual practice. Other reads available from UX Design.cc on
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AI regulation, stress quantification, and the variance
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problem.
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A conference speaker on the main stage just delivered a talk that
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was allegedly written by AI. Over on r/UXDesign, a designer
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is asking if this is becoming the new normal for industry
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events. They describe the content as lacking innovation
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and feeling hollow, which raises a bigger question about who owns
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the intellectual labor behind these presentations. If the tool
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generates the insight, the responsibility shifts from the
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human presenter to the system, and we currently lack the
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structure to hold that system accountable. In r/UXDesign, a
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principal content designer is trying to pivot to product
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design because they fear their current role will be automated.
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They have the strategy but lack the visual craft, and they're
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looking for a way to bridge that gap without starting over. This
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isn't just a career move, it's a survival tactic in a market
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where the definition of "designer" is changing faster
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than the job descriptions can keep up. Also in r/UXDesign,
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someone is frustrated that they can't build reusable AI skills
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for their team. They note that shared workflows fail because
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they ignore the specific nuances each designer relies on,
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highlighting a disconnect between management expectations
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and the reality of complex, iterative prompting. We have the
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tools, but we're missing the shared vocabulary to make them
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work for everyone. Today's discussions point to a clear
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gap: we're building faster than we're defining the rules.
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We need to talk about the accountability gap, specifically
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what Jeff Gothelf is arguing: before you automate a decision,
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you have to name the person who bears the consequences. It's a
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structural failure. That resonates because I see the same
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energy in the community right now. People are pivoting roles,
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or fearing their craft is being eroded, because they don't know
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who owns the output when the AI generates it. It's a survival
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tactic. And that's the systemic issue. When we treat LLMs as
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"normal technology," we're inverting the process. We're
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building solutions before defining the problem, which
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means the human judgment that used to sit between the tool and
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the user is now invisible. We're skipping the definition phase
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entirely. But here's where I push back on the "invisible"
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part. The craft has shifted. The value lies in the curation. If
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the tool does the heavy lifting, the human role becomes the
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editor who knows what to cut. That's a fair reframe, but it
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only works if the organization treats that editing as a gate.
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If the leader isn't the one signing off on the final output,
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the editor has no authority. You can't defend a decision you
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didn't make. Exactly. So the fix is to restructure the
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workflow. The person who curates the output must be the one who
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answers for it. That's the new definition of seniority. It's a
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simple rule, but it's one that changes the power dynamic
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completely. And once that rule is in place, the fear of
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automation fades, because the human becomes the decision-
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maker.
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That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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time!