AI decides what's true by consensus — it believes whatever most of its training data agrees on. Humans get to decide for themselves, and that freedom is a genuine superpower. Here's why, from Equilibrium Marketing, a Loveland, Colorado agency that uses AI every day and still trusts human judgment more.
TL;DR
- Large language models decide what's “true” by consensus: something is true if most of the training data agrees it is.
- That only works when most people are right — and adding “trusted sources” just changes the question to whether most approved experts are right.
- Humans can push back, follow intuition, and take the unpopular answer we know is right. AI, by design, cannot.
- Practical takeaway: use AI, but don't outsource your judgment of what's true. Understand its limits so you can get better than a “C” in life.
Have you ever really taken some time to ask yourself what makes something true? Is something true because there are objective truths it corresponds to? Is it true if everyone agrees upon it? Is it true if believing it leads to successful results? These are deeply human questions and they impact everything we do in our lives even if we never think about them, and as humans we get to decide for ourselves what foundational truths we use to make our decisions. AI isn't so lucky.
What can humans do that AI can't?
Every day we're bombarded with news about AI, fear that AI is going to take our jobs, or someone trying to sell us their online AI course. Understanding how to use AI is absolutely vital for success — but it's equally important to understand the uniquely human skills that let us do things AI is fundamentally incapable of doing. One of those abilities is freedom to determine what is true for ourselves.
How does an AI decide what's true?
Without going into the nitty gritty of it: AI in the sense most people talk about is a “Large Language Model” which is made up of artificial neurons all trained on (ideally) human created content, then from that content and training it can essentially guess what the right words are to provide to you, the user, based on a combination of your question and its knowledge, often with some search engine results thrown in as well. That is incredibly effective, but how does it know that what it's providing to you is fundamentally true?
What is the consensus theory of truth?
AI isn't truly conscious in the same way we humans are, so it relies on its programming and therefore is at the mercy of the consensus of its training data. As such AI must, by its very design, operate by what is sometimes called the “consensus theory of truth” which essentially says something is true if most people would agree that it is true. See the problem here? That theory of truth is useful if and only if most people are right.
There are things engineers do to try and combat this by adding trusted sources but that just moves the problem up one level: now something is true to AI if most “experts” (as defined by the engineers) would agree it is true. Again, this can be very practical but if experts get something wrong, which any expert in any field will tell you happens often, AI is fundamentally incapable of having that human intuition to see it doesn't line up, or to push for more, or to take the less universally agreed upon answer because we know deep down inside that it's true.
Where do humans still beat AI?
As AI becomes a greater and greater part of our lives a huge part of remaining able to provide value to the world in a practical sense is going to be tapping into our unique human superpowers, and the ability to think in truly novel ways, throwing aside what the herd believes will become more and more valuable.
So what's the practical takeaway? Don't rely on AI to tell you what's true. Really, truly understand its limitations — so you can get better than a “C” in life.
What does this mean for your business?
Use AI — seriously, use it — but never let it have the final word on what's true. We're not anti-AI over here. We use it every single day, and we build AI automations and training for businesses across Northern Colorado. AI is a phenomenal power tool. It's a terrible oracle. The moment you let it decide what's true about your market, your customers, or your strategy, you've handed your judgment to the average of the internet.
And here's the marketing angle nobody selling an AI course will mention: consensus is, by definition, average. If your business says what every chatbot says, you sound like everyone else — and marketing that sounds like everyone else gets ignored. The businesses that win in an AI-flooded world are the ones with a genuinely human point of view no model can remix into existence. Even the Pope has weighed in on AI blurring truth and lies — we covered that in our AI news roundup.
Want the whole picture on thriving alongside the machines? Start with Part 1 of our Preparing the Next Generation for AI series. And if you'd rather talk about what AI can actually do for your company — and what it can't — give us a call.
Key Takeaways
- Deciding what's true for ourselves is a human superpower. AI never gets that choice — it inherits the consensus of its training data.
- The consensus theory of truth is useful if and only if most people are right. Any expert in any field will tell you how often that fails.
- “Trusted sources” don't fix the problem; they just move it up one level — truth becomes whatever the engineer-approved experts agree on.
- As AI floods the world with consensus answers, truly novel thinking becomes more valuable, not less.
- AI is a phenomenal power tool and a terrible oracle. Use it for the work; keep the judgment for yourself.
Phil Lawrence founded Equilibrium Marketing in Loveland, Colorado in 2019 on one idea: marketing should tell the truth. He's built an agency whose team has worked with 200+ businesses over their careers, with flat-rate pricing, no long term contracts, and zero tolerance for industry nonsense. He'd rather lose a sale than lie to you.
