Dr. Sean Tobin Subscribe

February 13, 2026 Paid subscribers

I Wrote This With AI

On Genius, Cheapened Signals, and the Ceiling That Machines Cannot Reach

I thought through much of this article while rollerblading in Santa Monica, talking out loud to Meta AI through my glasses.

Later, I sat back as Full Self-Driving handled the long stretch to Malibu for an early surf, continuing the same conversation. There’s something surreal about being chauffeured by your own car while debating the implications of artificial intelligence. The steering wheel turns. The traffic flows. And you’re left with mental space you didn’t used to have.

What struck me in those moments wasn’t that technology was replacing me.

It was that it was creating space.

As a psychotherapist, I spend my days listening beneath language. I listen for what is under the words. For the emotional charge not yet named. For the meaning that precedes explanation. My work is not about producing speech. It’s about discerning what is actually there.

Paid subscriber essay

The rest of this piece is for paid subscribers of The Inner Exodus.

Unlock this essay and the full archive with a paid subscription on Substack. It is what keeps the writing going.

Keep reading

Related essays

All essays →

August 16, 2026

An AI reasoned its way to God.

Assent has never been the hard part. Even the Demons Believe

AI & Being Human

August 13, 2026

AI agents built a religion

And like us, they walled it off from the part of them that wants things.

AI & Being Human

August 11, 2026

The End of Reading Is Not the End of Thinking

We are losing a faculty. It may not be the one we think.

AI & Being Human