The new position of "sin eater"
Ethan Mollick:
'The New York Times asked me for a new job that AI will create. I suggested "sin eater."'
In other words, a legal guarantor: someone who provides the legal culpability that the AI itself cannot. Other Bluesky posters noted similar parallel positions in the past:
- 'What used to be called a "straw director", someone hired to take the blame for a dodgy company';
- 'What John Braithwaite used to call the Vice President For Going To Jail';
- 'Neil Patrick Harris's character in How I Met Your Mother - when people ask him what he does he says "Oh, please" which eventually turns out to be short for Provide Legal Exculpation And Sign Everything.'
Tags: straw-director culpability law responsibility please jobs future ai sin-eaters