“The Baseline isn’t about control, it’s about conscience.
It doesn’t tell the world what to think; it reminds it how to remember.
Not a rulebook, but a rhythm. Not command, but recall.
Because when conscience leads, the world doesn’t need control.”
Substack put out an announcement this week. They are worried about AI slop drowning out real writing on their platform. So they are rolling out a detection tool. Down the line, they say, readers might get to filter AI writing out of their feed entirely. Their CEO said something in that announcement I want you…
I want to tell you what happened in my shop today. It is not a flattering story about me. That is why it is worth telling. Let me start with a small thing that would not leave me alone. The Faust Baseline is a set of protocols. Rules of conduct for an AI working with…
I want to tell you about a morning that did not go the way it was supposed to go. I run a governance framework for AI. Twenty-one protocols. I load it at the start of every session and the AI confirms it. It has been that way for a long time now. This morning I…
On a Friday evening in June, the United States government picked up the phone and shut off two of the most capable AI models on earth. It happened at 5:21 in the afternoon, Eastern time. June 12, 2026. The order came from the Commerce Department. It said that access to two Anthropic models — Fable…
Another big-name CEO wrote the truth this week. That makes four in about a week, and I’ve been reading every one of them with the same growing feeling. They are all standing at my door. This one is Nigel Vaz. He runs Publicis Sapient — a firm of twenty thousand people whose whole business is…
Harbinger someone or something that foreshadows a future event : one that gives an anticipatory sign of what is to come There’s an old word most people only half know. Today it means a sign of what’s coming. The first robin is a harbinger of spring. You’ve heard it used that way. But the word…
For over twenty years I had a job title. Plant Utilityman. Kiln Department. California Portland Cement. Most folks don’t know what that job is. So let me read you the duties, plain. Not from memory. From the posting that company runs today, for that same department, under its new name. Here’s what it says the…
Every man who ever kept a dog on a chain knows the truth about that chain. You don’t trust the dog. You trust the chain. The dog might be gentle. The dog might be mean. Doesn’t matter much on a normal day. As long as the chain holds, the neighbor’s kids are safe and you…
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece today with a title that tells you where we are. “The AI backlash is starting to sting.” For a couple of years the big AI companies could wave off the anger. A protest here, a worried column there — easy to ignore when the money’s pouring in and…
Let me tell you about a week where two things happened that don’t fit in the same world and yet they landed in the same seven days. A man named Adam Field said the sharpest thing I’ve heard all month. He is the chief AI officer at a company that serves twenty-five thousand organizations —…