Encouraged is just required wearing a disguise

David Durman, a research administrator at the University of Kentucky, secured an exemption from using AI at work. As detailed in Tom's Hardware and Newsweek, he is a humanist who argues that offloading his thinking to AI violates his beliefs.

Newsweek adds that nobody required him to use AI. The university only encouraged it. As anyone who has worked in an office knows, "encouraged" is simply "required" in its first week, before a specific date is set. He was concerned the use could eventually become mandatory, so he asked ahead of time. He did what most people only mutter about, turning a vague pressure into a formal request.

The exemption covers his hands, not the room. He must still attend meetings where AI is used and work alongside colleagues who use it. Imagine a vegetarian excused from eating the sausage but still expected to sit at the barbecue. The room is where the tool is going to be. Every meeting from now on is a meeting about something he is excused from.

Getting it meant calling his belief an article of faith, and federal courts do count humanism as a religion. Until recently, doing your own thinking at work was not a belief, it was the job description. Other workers' requests could be shorter: "Reason for request: I would like to do the job myself."