When the connector becomes the source

Weeknotes 390: Google I/O revealed something bigger than new features: a shift from connector to source. When the search engine becomes the author, who owns the knowledge—and who's responsible for it? And more human-picked notions from last week’s news on physical AI and tech impact.

Reused Midjourney hallucination

Dear reader!

So, that was the final public holiday on Monday for this year, I think. I did work a bit in advance, but it is still causing a slight delay in this newsletter's delivery. Let’s dive in! I think I have a bit more hand-picked links than usual...

Week 390: When the connector becomes the source

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of participating in the workshop by Tiwánee van der Horst, “Design Technology with Algae” at Nieuwe Instituut. It explains in a very tangible way the impact of AI. The workshop revolves around the question: How can humans learn to sense nature’s tangible feedback during co-design processes and attune to indicators of the ecological impact of AI designs?

I made two algae cultures containing contaminants, based on a validation of the impact of using Midjourney, my go-to tool for making pictures for this newsletter. I redesigned a version that may be less extractive by reusing images through a sensible share-and-search mechanism. To try, I scrolled through my earlier images for the image above, which is a semi-fitting match, as I am missing the search option.

My two algae cultures, left for Midjourney, right for the redesigned version

I am curious to see what the consequences of the coming four weeks will be, as the results of the workshop will be shared in the ThingsCon Salon Making Symbiocene on 26 June. Join us in Rotterdam, where we will also launch the new RIOT2026, featuring 10 lovely new articles!

We also sat with the board of ThingsCon to discuss future plans. Not only this year, but we also have some thoughts for a special program in 2027 that opens up the possibility of making the theme a reality, a bit like we did with our 2024/2025 exhibition Generative Things. Will keep you posted on that for sure!

Also happened last week: catching up with Peet and Sebastiaan, a workshop on “The power of the personal in the pluralities of systems”, by Lana Klok and Poorvi Garag, and I was invited to present the new 2026 manifesto of Cities of Things to a group of guests from Design Thinkers Academy. Next Thursday I am also invited to do another public version (more workshop, less presentation), so if you are around in Amsterdam, check it out.

This week’s triggered thought

Google I/O showed more than new features. It revealed a shift in role. That triggered me when I read Benedict Evans's newsletter. For decades, Google was the intermediary, the connector between your question and someone else's answer. You searched, Google pointed, and you arrived at a source. The knowledge had an origin you could trace, question, trust, or distrust. That's changing.

As Benedict Evans observed: For all of this, Google continues to shift emphasis from taking you to a resource made by someone else to generating its own summary or version of the answer, made from everything it’s seen on the web. Google will tell you the answer, based on the averages of everything other people have made.

The connector becomes the author. This might sound like a technicality, but I think it is more systemic. When Google generates the answer instead of linking to it, Google becomes the sender. The knowledge is now Google's. Not referenced, not attributed in any meaningful way—owned. Presented as if it emerged from the search box itself. Next up might be a full integration of YouTube, taking you to the right clip of a movie if you are looking for a how-to, Benedicts adds. Indeed, might be. Or might even go further: in line of the AI overview: the how-to made in a synthetic form, synthesized from all how-to’s in one new synthetic video version to consume. This is not far off if you consider what the NotebookLM studio can already produce.

Consider what this means for responsibility. When Google generates a flawed answer from a thousand articles, who is accountable? Google has positioned itself as a knowledge-holder without the traditions, standards, or obligations that usually come with that role. And imagine the next step: interfaces that don't just generate answers but compose personalized experiences. Google is mentioning planning these type of adaptive pages. In line with the vibe-coding movement, people could build personal services tailored exactly to their needs. Not one synthesized answer for everyone, but a personalized service shaped to your history, your patterns, your inferred preferences.

One of my long-time beliefs, which also became part of the new Cities of Things Manifesto, is that you need to design friction into AI systems. To design for the legibility of agency, and also to retain the ability to encounter resistance, surprise, unoptimized experience, and unfiltered encounter with others within agentic environments. I do not know if this will be part of Google’s implementation yet, but I can imagine they will choose another experience. Of sudden change, the interface anticipates, adapts, and serves. The experience feels seamless, natural. Like it's yours.

So whose agency is at work? When you search, you're seeking an active posture. When a personalized service is delivered, you're receiving. The difference is subtle but profound. One keeps you in the role of author of your own inquiry. The other makes you a passenger in an experience designed around a model of who you've been.

We're used to thinking about what technology does. We're less practiced at asking what position it takes. Google taking the position of source rather than connector changes the landscape of knowledge itself, who holds it, who presents it, and who answers for it. We can see what that might lead to with the other big player in the manipulation of our digital life.

And we haven't even talked about agents yet, the systems that don't just answer but act on your behalf, let alone if that is entering our physical encounters with things and environments…

Human-picked notions from last week’s news

Google I/O, all of the keynote, I watched the 30 min summary by The Verge, these are the biggest announcements. Everyone is talking about the glasses, but the new AI search and agentic features might be more impactful on the short run. At least for more people. Nevertheless, I also had a thought about how speech, as an interface, is a fit for our AI-operating-system era…

In the meantime, Anthropic catches a big fish. And Meta is communicating strategies through labor policies.

Human-AI relations

Can AI be a good tool in eduction? Critical thinking is crucial.

Good reflections: better use commodity intelligence than general intelligence to stress what the output really is becoming now.

What counts as acceptable us of AI has never been fuzzier.

AI as a mirror.

Vibe coding music.

After automation; AI progress creates more work for humans, is the experience of Every.

Physical AI

My impressions from the numerous short video memes with robot fails (on TikTok, Reels): mixed feelings by the human fellow-citizens.

The virtual manufacturing might inform us on future digital seconds.

True: “The future of physical AI focuses on robots designed for specific tasks, not humanoid machines.” And it is not about smarter robots but about smarter interfaces.

You can create memes though with them, the humanoids.

Could this become embodied AI too?

Uber is going b2b with robot taxis.

I don’t think this counts as regenerative robots…

If you are into making physical stuff yourself, check this out; vibe coding firmware.

Tech in civic societies

Big news. God has an opinion on AI, or at least, it’s representative on earth has.

One more from Google I/O. Demis Hassabis seems like a sensible guy, but is now catching the singularity flu?

Fear of uncertainty about the continuity of our current US tech providers (makes sense) will lead to new markets and service providers. Just an example.

Rethink who you are designing for.

It all starts with regulations. Also for drones.

Smart contracts

AI might be dancing on the volcano. Or at least the big players.

Misc

As a fellow organizer of events, I still have Interesting on my list to visit (next year?). I follow Russell across his several channels (from blog to TikTok walks), and these are valuable lessons.

Visual pleasing studies

Weekly paper to check

This is also a telling term for a new phenomenon: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

Yet, LLMorphism may spread through two mechanisms: analogical transfer, whereby features of LLMs are projected onto humans, and metaphorical availability, whereby LLM vocabulary becomes a culturally salient vocabulary for describing thought. I distinguish LLMorphism from mechanomorphism, anthropomorphism, computationalism, dehumanization, objectification, and predictive-processing theories of mind.

Capraro, V. (2026). LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.05419.

What’s up for the coming week?

Apart from the above-mentioned event at Design Thinkers Academy exploring the impact of AI and what it means for our roles, identities, and the way we work.

I do not have other plans, need to write some proposals and articles 🙂 But looking at the calendars, you might check out: Regenerative economics, a book launch in Amsterdam, Digitale Autonomie Unconference (29 May in Amsterdam), Creative Mornings (29 May in Rotterdam), and some people might be traveling to SXSW in London (2nd edition), I will track some people to hear and see if I can develop FOMO… I might check PublicSpaces though, end of next week.

Have a great week!

About me

I'm an independent researcher through co-design, curator, and “critical creative”, working on human-AI-things relationships. You can contact me if you'd like to unravel the impact and opportunities through research, co-design, speculative workshops, curate communities, and more.

Currently working on: Cities of Things, ThingsCon, Civic Protocol Economies.