45- AI, Art and Emotions

Oct 20

Living Well with Technology, episode 45 of the Human Pulse Podcast.

When an acclaimed novel running for France's prestigious Prix Goncourt is suddenly accused of being almost entirely written by artificial intelligence, something fascinating happens: readers who genuinely loved the book begin to change their minds. If a piece of art triggers real human emotion, does it matter whether it was produced by a human or a machine?

Just like blind wine tastings or the placebo effect, our subjective experience of reality is heavily shaped by the stories we tell ourselves about what we are consuming. When we view AI as an author rather than a simple tool like a paintbrush, our trust fractures—both in the art itself and in our broader perception of reality.

Meanwhile, the explosion of generative AI—and the tidal wave of automated "slop" that comes with it—forces us to confront deeper legal and philosophical questions. From the famous "monkey selfie" copyright dispute to AI companies training models on scraped works while fiercely protecting their own code, the lines between inspiration, theft, authorship, and ownership are blurring beyond recognition.

Are we witnessing the death of authorship and intellectual property as we know it, and how do we build a new human story around creativity in the age of AI?

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Chapters

00:00 Quote
00:48 The Prix Goncourt AI Controversy
05:37 Real Emotions, Fake Author?
07:07 Wine, Brain Waves, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
12:20 The Paintbrush vs. The Machine
17:19 Who Is the Author?
20:56 The Crisis of Trust
22:36 The Monkey Selfie and the Death of Ownership

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Recording Date: October, 18th, 2026

Hosts: Anne Trager – Human Potential & Executive Performance Coach & Fabrice Neuman – Tech Consultant for Small Businesses

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Connect with us

Anne Trager
Connect with Anne on LinkedIn
Connect with Anne on Bluesky
Find out more about the Potentializer Academy

Fabrice Neuman
Connect with Fabrice on LinkedIn
Connect with Fabrice on Bluesky
Find out more about Pro-fusion Conseils

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Resources & Links

C'était ça ou mourir by Thélyson Orélien (Wikipedia page in French)

Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness (National Library of Medicine)