About:This essay argues that AI tools do not evaluate people based on traditional credentials, résumés, or institutional affiliations. Instead, they surface and reward outputs—actual writing, code, creative artifacts—irrespective of who made them. In this new terrain, legacy markers of prestige hold less weight. This shift threatens institutions built on reputation but empowers people to be judged by their work itself. And is a reason to play with AI and get good it at.
Key ideas:
- AI systems “see” output, not résumé: your work speaks louder than your title.
- Traditional credentials and institutional affiliations lose power in AI-driven systems.
- There’s an urgent need to design new ways to signal trust and identity beyond job history.
- AI flattens access to opportunity but can also obscure who made what, raising questions of attribution.
Use for:
Use in System Trust & Epistemic Authority module to explore how AI is reordering social trust, expertise, and authority. The piece supports discussions on epistemic flattening, post-institutional credibility, and the need for new forms of signaling in machine-mediated systems.