We tell pollsters we do not trust AI. We tell our browsers something very different.
Anthropic used its new Interviewer tool to speak with 1250 workers. The report reveals a massive gulf between public posture and private reality.
They describe a workforce of “Pragmatic Addicts”.
People are using “Shadow AI”—paying for personal ChatGPT or Claude subscriptions because corporate IT hasn’t caught up, and using it to do their jobs without telling their boss.
There is a profound cognitive dissonance here. The workers are terrified the AI will replace them, so they hide the fact they rely on it. But they have to rely on it, because everyone else is secretly using it to work faster.
Are we drifting towards a new kind of dependency?
If the tool that makes you 30% more productive is also the tool you are actively shielding from management, you are not managing the technology. The technology is managing you.
