To understand how AI will reconfigure humanity, try this German fairytale (www.theguardian.com)

Clemens J. Setz uses the German fairytale The Fisherman and His Wife to frame a near-future in which generative AI is the “enchanted fish” in everyone’s pocket: instant essay-writing, on-demand films, sexual content accessed around age- and regional controls, and bespoke AI agents that negotiate, soothe criticism, act as therapists or partners. That easy wish-fulfillment will reshape creativity and competence—prompting becomes a mastered craft while original skills atrophy—and shift social norms as younger generations who grew up with these tools normalize their use. Early friction appears in familiar forms (academic sanctions, age‑control workarounds), but will fade as capability diffuses and prompting literacy replaces older markers of achievement. Setz highlights three social responses with technical and ethical implications. The wealthy can pay for “authentic” human-produced experiences (preserving an aura/provenance), while others form communities that reintroduce artificial hardship or scarcity for meaning. The likeliest outcome is internalized guilt: users bear responsibility for AI’s ecological and moral costs, curtailing freedoms and amplifying conformity. Important technical policy issues follow—provenance/authenticity, detection, energy footprint of large models, content moderation and circumvention (VPNs), and how design choices distribute responsibility between corporations and end users. The piece warns that beyond convenience, AI will rewrite desire, value, and what it means to grow up in a world where wishes are trivially granted.