Creators who built followings based on trust refuse to outsource some tasks to AI: Humans can ‘sense a decoy’

Creators who built their careers on trust and authenticity, including dating coach Matthew Hussey and author Gabby Bernstein, are using AI to create digital twins for personalized fan interactions while refusing to outsource core creative work like writing books or emails to the technology. Hussey said at a Delphi event that humans can "sense a decoy" in content pretending not to be AI-generated, underscoring the effort paradox where audiences value the labor behind creative output over perfection. The decision to limit AI's role reflects a broader leadership challenge in determining which tasks require human effort to maintain value and trust with audiences.

In today’s CEO Daily: Valuing effort in the AI age. The big leadership story: A ‘troubling’ relationship under the microscope ahead of the SpaceX https://fortune.com/company/spacex/ IPO. The markets: U.S. futures tick up in hopes that a U.S.-Iran peace deal is imminent. Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune . Good morning. For my birthday, a friend texted this AI-generated “painting” https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dianebrady1 the-effort-value-matrix-in-action-should-activity-7463628187957194755-YBEh?utm source=share&utm medium=member desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAZ1TEBOZXH0qzygtoPiOv7ocd65kOPxOo created from an old photo of me that he’d pulled from Facebook. It took eight seconds to produce, making it more of a cute party trick than a piece of art. Such is the effort paradox https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6172040/ in which we assign value to the labor and talent that goes into producing something. When it comes to creativity, humans value effort over perfection. In a world where everything can be made by AI, how do we measure and maintain value? As Adam Smith said, the real price of everything is “the toil and trouble of acquiring it.” It’s an important factor for leaders to weigh as they decide which creative work to assign to AI and which to leave to humans. Few think about this more than creators whose businesses rely on building trust with millions of followers. Matthew Hussey https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9HGzFGt7BLmWDqooUbWGBg and Gabby Bernstein https://www.instagram.com/gabbybernstein/ are authors whose popularity stems from fostering deeply human conversations about topics like authenticity, personal connections, and vulnerability. They have created digital twins with help from Dara Ladjevardian and his team at Delphi.ai http://delphi.ai , who also created a digital twin of me https://fortune.com/2025/06/10/digital-twin-ai-version-of-you/ last year through his AI startup. Both have strong views on AI and what must remain analog for their careers to thrive. Hussey uses his digital self to give fans access to personalized dating advice. “Everyone wants personalized coaching, and it’s not available to 99.9% of the audience,” he said on stage at a Delphi event last week, noting that one person’s conversation with his AI version lasted six hours. “The idea that I would co-write an email or book with AI is grotesque. I don’t need to scale a newsletter or a YouTube https://fortune.com/company/youtube/ video. It’s about the quality of it. When human beings feel there is a decoy in something that’s pretending not to be a decoy, they sense it.” “We want people to know immediately that this isn’t me. But if you want to talk to someone at 2 a.m. about a heartbreak you are going through, it’s here …This is about finding a genuine solution to a problem. I’ve put 18 years of everything I’ve ever done into Matthew.ai. It democratizes access to everything I’ve ever learned.” For Bernstein, AI addresses another problem that’s plagued her as an entrepreneur. “I’m a bad manager. I’m the worst. I don’t want to manage … The beauty is that I can manage a smaller group of people,” she said. “I am much more grounded and centered working with fewer humans. As a generalist who is very fast and has ADHD….I can reinvest my time differently. I can be more picky about the content that I put out.” As Hussey put it: “Everyone can make a good YouTube video … Good is dead. You have to be great.” And to become great, he added, there’s no substitute for putting in the work. Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com Top leadership news A ‘troubling’ relationship at SpaceX Private equity investor Antonio Gracias’ Valor Equity Partners was one of Tesla's earliest institutional investors and holds roughly 7.3% of SpaceX, making him the second-largest individual shareholder after Musk. Meanwhile, lease agreements obligate SpaceX to pay Valor close to $20 billion https://fortune.com/2026/05/25/spacex-ipo-elon-musk-best-friend-antonio-gracias-billionaire/ . Nell Minow, a chair of ValueEdge Advisors, called the Valor leases "deeply troubling." Inside the ‘stealth wealth’ playbook A growing class of ultrawealthy buyers, particularly tech and AI executives who have moved to Silicon Valley, are deliberately routing their home purchases through limited liability companies, privacy trusts, and so-called “whisper” listings that never touch the multiple listing service. Their end goal isn’t getting the best deal they can possibly get: It’s more about maintaining anonymity https://fortune.com/2026/05/24/what-is-stealth-wealth-homebuying-luxury-whisper-listings-using-llc/ and thinning their paper trails to ensure security. A parental leave play Rosewood Hotel Group, owned by Hong Kong’s Cheng family, has introduced a global, gender‑neutral policy granting all employees 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave https://fortune.com/2026/05/25/rosewood-16-week-paid-parental-leave-asia-birth-rate-slump/?showAdminBar=true , including for adoption. The move, more generous than statutory minimums in much of Asia, aims to boost talent attraction, retention, and culture as the region confronts collapsing fertility rates and worker shortages, especially in hospitality The markets S&P 500 futures are up 0.62% this morning. The last session closed up 0.37%. The STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.24% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.63% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.25%. South Korea’s KOSPI was up 2.55%. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.53%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was flat. India’s NIFTY 50 is down 0.51%. Bitcoin was at $77K. Around the watercooler Elon Musk’s SpaceX IPO filing just told us what business he’s betting on for the future—and it’s not rockets https://fortune.com/2026/05/23/what-business-is-space-x-in-ipo-filing-stock/ by Shawn Tully It took over a decade, but NextDecade’s longshot bet to lead LNG in Texas is finally paying off https://fortune.com/2026/05/24/over-decade-nextdecades-longshot-bet-lead-texas-lng-finally-paying-off/ by Jordan Blum AI hallucinations are infiltrating expert work—and entering the permanent body of knowledge https://fortune.com/2026/05/24/ai-hallucinations-scientific-research-authors-medical-journal-treatment/ by Tristan Bove The quiet death of conscious consumerism, from Everlane and Allbirds to Beyond Meat https://fortune.com/2026/05/23/everlane-conscious-consumerism-allbirds-beyond-meat/ by Phil Wahba CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford. 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