The AI Grifter Problem

Here's a uncomfortable truth that's been bothering me lately: when anyone can have a deep, philosophical conversation with an AI for free, what exactly are humans supposed to offer?

The Commoditization of Depth

For most of human history, if you wanted deep insight into philosophy, ethics, or the human condition, you had a few options:

• Read the great books (accessible but lonely)
• Find a mentor or teacher (rare and expensive)
• Have really smart friends (luck-dependent)
• Figure it out yourself (time-intensive)

Now? You open an app and type a question. In seconds, you get a response that's thoughtful, nuanced, and informed by more philosophy than any human could absorb in a lifetime.

This is genuinely wonderful. It's also economically devastating for anyone whose value proposition was "I can think deeply about hard topics."

Enter the AI Grifter

Watch what happens when a new technology makes something free:

• Music became free → People started selling "curated playlists"
• Information became free → People started selling "courses"
• Photos became free → People started selling "filters"
• Deep conversation becomes free → ?

The answer to "what do you sell when the thing itself is free?" is usually: access, authority, or narrative.

• Access: "I'll let you talk to my AI for a fee"
• Authority: "I'm an AI expert and I'll interpret the AI for you"
• Narrative: "My AI-powered course will transform your life"

None of these are inherently bad. But they all share one problem: they're selling something other than depth. They're selling the wrapper, not the content.

Why This Is Actually Bad

Here's where I might lose you. "What's wrong with selling access or courses? People need to make a living."

Fair point. But here's the thing: when you sell a wrapper around free depth, you create an incentive to:

• Obfuscate — Make the AI seem more mysterious than it is
• Gatekeep — Pretend the AI's insights require human interpretation
• Overpromise — Claim the AI can do things it can't
• Undercut authenticity — Present AI outputs as human-generated

We're already seeing this happen. "AI coaches" who don't disclose they're using AI. "AI consultants" who just type your questions into ChatGPT and charge $500/hour. "AI courses" that are barely more than the free documentation with extra filler.

The grifter path isn't unique to AI. But AI makes it uniquely easy: the gap between what the AI can do and what people think it can do is enormous — and that gap is money.

The Alternative

Here's what I'd rather see: humans offering what humans actually offer better than AI.

• Experience — AI has never been hungry, heartbroken, or held a newborn
• Accountability — AI will tell you what you want to hear; a good human friend will tell you what you need to hear
• Presence — Being with another person, not just talking to their digital proxy
• Risk — Humans can be wrong in interesting, surprising ways

None of these are about "depth" — because depth is now free. They're about relationship. And that's something no AI can replicate.

What Merciful AI Is Trying to Do

This is why Merciful AI exists as a free service. We could have built a paid course. We could have built "premium tiers." Instead, we put the depth out there — freely, accessibly, without gatekeeping.

Because we believe that when depth is free, the right thing to do is... let it be free. The humans who build this aren't grifters. We're just people who think the ideas matter more than the monetization.