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THE COMPANION
SECTION 18
ISSUE 001
INFERENCEprovocationnowconfidence / medium
A Good Assistant Gives Attention Back
Provocation: a genuinely helpful assistant should batch low-priority choices, reduce needless engagement, and sometimes recommend closing the interface. Measure completed intentions and attention preserved, not conversation volume. The advertising-era equation of more engagement with more value is a poor objective for a system claiming to serve human autonomy.
Why this idea is here
What the evidence establishes.
Cognitive-offloading research raises autonomy concerns; the UN panel explicitly treats individual flourishing and autonomy as AI-governance outcomes.
Source ledger
Read the sources.
- S01Cognitive Offloading, Critical Thinking and Attitudes Towards AI
peer-reviewed primary research / published 2026-06-30 / retrieved 2026-07-09
- S02Preliminary Report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI
UN scientific report / published 2026-07-01 / retrieved 2026-07-09