The Waymo effect: how AI is quietly making research less collaborative

Daniel Hook names the 'Waymo effect': when tech removes human friction, we treat the removal as pure gain because the costs were visible but the benefits weren't. He uses driverless cars as a metaphor—no small talk is a relief, but unchosen cross-bubble conversations vanish too. In research, LLMs are becoming the frictionless colleague: available at 2am, agenda-free, and never telling you that you're solving the wrong problem. A collaborator's inconvenience is the collaboration. Hook worries researchers will default to AI over humans, quietly eroding the social fabric of science. The post is a conceptual essay; it does not cite empirical data on the trend.

Why it matters: Fresh concept with a real analytical frame, not generic commentary. Downside: it's an opinion piece with no data or experiment, skirting the 'zero-sourcing' exclusion but the argument quality saves it. Sits right at the featured threshold.