{"slug": "an-innovation-theorist-says-ai-could-squeeze-out-the-weird-ideas-that-change-the", "title": "An innovation theorist says AI could squeeze out the weird ideas that change the world", "summary": "Innovation theorist John Nosta warns that AI could crowd out the rare, original thinking behind humanity's biggest breakthroughs by pushing unconventional ideas toward the middle of a bell curve, creating a \"sea of mediocrity.\" Nosta, founder of Nostalab, says recursive AI systems trained on AI-generated data can gravitate toward consensus rather than originality, making it harder for outliers like Einstein or Picasso to emerge. He advocates using AI as an \"iterative intelligence\" partner to preserve human habits like curiosity and struggle.", "body_md": "AI has become good at producing polished writing, answering questions, and generating ideas in seconds.\n\nBut John Nosta, an innovation theorist and founder of the think tank Nostalab, worries the technology could gradually crowd out the rare, original thinking that has historically driven humanity's biggest breakthroughs.\n\nNosta compares human thinking to a bell curve. Most people cluster around the middle, he said, while the people responsible for the biggest breakthroughs sit at the extremes, or what he called the \"tails.\"\n\n\"What we're seeing is that large language models, particularly when they train themselves on what's called [recursive data](https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-safety-team-ai-self-improvement-challenge-job-2026-5) — that is, data generated by AI itself — that bell curve starts to change,\" Nosta told Business Insider.\n\n\"We lose the tail. It just becomes one big bump,\" he said. \"What happens there is that it sort of blends into a sea of mediocrity.\"\n\n\"Einstein was a tail. Newton was a tail. Picasso was a tail,\" he added.\n\n## 'Society depends on those outliers'\n\nFor Nosta, innovation comes from unusual people willing to think differently.\n\n\"Where's the outlier? Where's the weird idea? Where's the person who sees something nobody else sees? That's what concerns me,\" he said of AI.\n\nHe said recursive AI systems can gravitate toward consensus rather than originality, making it harder for unconventional thinking to emerge.\n\n\"Those strange ideas get pushed toward the middle because the computational dynamics of the AI push those strange outliers away,\" he said.\n\nNosta doesn't think AI will eliminate creativity altogether. He thinks it could make originality rarer by nudging people toward the same patterns of thinking.\n\n\"Society depends on those outliers,\" he said.\n\nThe evidence so far is mixed. Some research suggests relying [heavily on AI](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-reliance-decision-making-life-advice-cognitive-surrender-2026-6) can steer users toward more conventional, homogeneous ideas, while other studies have found the technology can enhance creativity when people use it to explore possibilities rather than replace their own thinking.\n\nChris Best, the CEO of newsletter platform Substack, has said that while AI could flood the internet with \"AI slop,\" it could also usher in \"a future where there's way more creative leverage\" by giving independent creators new ways to [produce original work](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-slop-cultural-renaissance-substack-ceo-chris-best-2025-9).\n\nMastercard communications and marketing chief Jill Kramer said that AI can serve as [\"an engine\" for human creativity](https://www.businessinsider.com/mastercard-cmo-jill-kramer-ai-marketing-strategy-2026-6).\n\nShe said the technology can help marketers generate deeper insights and broaden the research and preparation that fuels new ideas, allowing them to do things they \"could never do before.\"\n\n## Use AI as a partner\n\nNosta said the solution isn't to abandon AI but to use it as what he calls an \"iterative intelligence\" partner, one that helps people explore ideas rather than replacing the [thinking process itself](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-impact-on-thinking-cognitive-skills-researcher-2026-3) — an idea promoted by several top AI researchers, including Vivienne Ming, chief scientist at the Possibility Institute, a metascience research group.\n\nMing told Business Insider in March that AI is most valuable when people use it to challenge their own thinking rather than outsource it, creating what she calls \"productive friction.\"\n\n\"The iterative engagement is where we need to celebrate this,\" Nosta said.\n\nTo him, preserving originality ultimately means preserving the human habits AI cannot replicate: curiosity, struggle, and the willingness to think differently.\n\n\"The treasure is in the tail,\" Nosta said.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-innovation-theorist-says-ai-could-squeeze-out-the-weird-ideas-that-change-the", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-could-squeeze-out-original-thinking-innovation-theorist-2026-7", "published_at": "2026-07-24 14:48:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-24 15:24:40.247224+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "ai-ethics", "ai-research"], "entities": ["John Nosta", "Nostalab", "Vivienne Ming", "Possibility Institute", "Chris Best", "Substack", "Jill Kramer", "Mastercard"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-innovation-theorist-says-ai-could-squeeze-out-the-weird-ideas-that-change-the", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-innovation-theorist-says-ai-could-squeeze-out-the-weird-ideas-that-change-the.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-innovation-theorist-says-ai-could-squeeze-out-the-weird-ideas-that-change-the.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-innovation-theorist-says-ai-could-squeeze-out-the-weird-ideas-that-change-the.jsonld"}}