I’ve started noticing something recently, and now I can’t stop seeing it. At first, it showed up as a handful of small, isolated moments. Strange, but easy enough to ignore. Then it kept repeating. For example, a client’s technical team was asked to send over notes so I could turn their expertise into a benefit-focused content marketing piece. Instead, they sent a fully written article. Sounds great, right? But when I asked them to elaborate on one of the ideas, everything stalled. They wanted to know where it appeared in the document. They found the section, read it, paused. Then one of them said, “Ask Claude.” They both laughed. That’s when it landed for me. They hadn’t just used AI to sharpen their thinking. They’d relied on it to create something they didn’t fully recognize as their own and couldn’t really unpack. In other words, AI is making it simpler to generate output, but harder to know who actually grasps the content. Once I became aware of this, I started spotting it everywhere. A student turned in an outstanding final project: clear logic, solid structure, polished prose. Far better than any of her earlier work. But several paragraphs had that familiar extra space at the start. I asked if she’d used AI. She had. I told her she needed to disclose that, and she agreed. Still, I’m not sure she truly learned the material. A marketing agency I’m collaborating with shared a slide deck packed with intricate tables, charts, and timelines. It looked impressive. But when I started asking questions,…