As artificial intelligence reshapes the modern workplace and transforms how people write, code, and create, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is warning that one thing must remain intact: critical thinking.
According to her, the temptation to hand over reasoning tasks to machines could weaken our most essential human skill—judgment.
“AI is able to automate a lot of critical-reasoning tasks, and if we fully outsource our own reasoning, it’s actually not good enough to run in an automated fashion,” Graber told Business Insider in a recent interview. “You can’t just fully outsource your thinking, or an essay, to AI.”
Graber’s comments come at a time when AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are increasingly used for essay writing, customer support, moderation, and even software development. Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform she leads, uses AI to assist with moderation and content curation. But Graber stressed that Bluesky never allows AI systems to operate autonomously. Every AI-generated suggestion is reviewed by a human because context, she said, is everything.
“When you let it run autonomously, it doesn’t have actual context or intelligence, or the many things that we need as humans to make good decisions,” she explained. “And so it’s producing stuff that sounds or looks right without actually being right.”
AI Can Do the Work—But Do You Know How to Judge It?
Graber emphasized that as AI becomes more capable, the human role is evolving—from direct output to judgment and refinement. Whether it’s writing or coding, she believes users must still understand the fundamentals.
“If you don’t know what good code looks like, if you don’t know how to actually build a system, you’re not going to be able to evaluate its output,” she said.
AI can generate text or even solve bugs, but without the ability to assess and correct what it produces, the risk of flawed reasoning or misleading content grows.
Build the Thinking Muscle—Don’t Let It Atrophy
Graber advised students to push back against convenience and actually write essays by hand. The goal, she explained, is to build up the “muscle for critical thinking”—not weaken it by overusing AI shortcuts. The long-term risk, she warned, is a world filled with content that “sounds or looks right without actually being right.”
She also championed a generalist mindset, encouraging individuals to develop a wide range of skills rather than relying on AI as a crutch. In her view, AI is like packaged expertise, but human discernment is what gives that knowledge value.
“You need to have the good judgment of how you’re going to use it, and then you have to have the flexibility to take that knowledge and do something useful with it,” Graber said.
The Takeaway: Use AI, But Don’t Let It Use You
As artificial intelligence becomes a core part of everything from business to education, experts like Graber and Chowdhury are urging caution, not because AI is inherently harmful, but because human judgment is irreplaceable.
Bluesky’s refusal to let AI run unchecked is a case in point. “We’re never going to let it make decisions on its own,” Graber said. “Because it doesn’t understand what’s at stake.”
In sum, Graber is saying: in a world increasingly shaped by algorithms, the ability to think critically, ask the right questions, and apply sound judgment may be the most valuable skill of all.
