Note sull'episodio
You are using AI right now. Maybe to search, to write, to plan, or to process. But here is the question nobody is asking loudly enough: what is it doing to who you actually are?
In this episode of The Original Self Podcast, Evet DeCota takes an honest look at one of the most pressing questions of our time. AI is reshaping advertising, music, news, jobs, and human connection — and most of us are participating in that reshaping without ever deciding to. Drawing on her own evolving relationship with AI, a deep dive into research on empathy and technology, and candid conversations with an insider at a major AI safety company and her brother Stefan, a strategic business advisor with 25 years of experience in data and tech, Evet explores both sides of the question with the honesty her listeners have come to expect.
In this episode:
• Why deepfakes and AI-generated content are widening the chasm between people, viewpoints, and feelings.
• What AI actually is — and the critical distinction between learning from it and letting it reason and communicate for you.
• The research of Victor Frimpong and Empathy Displacement Theory — how simulated empathy doesn't just fill the gap where real empathy used to be, but gradually retrains us to accept the imitation as the real thing.
• What an AI safety insider and a strategic business advisor both warn is coming — and why it deserves our attention now.
• A client story that shows what it looks like when AI is used as a tool for self-discovery rather than a substitute for it.
• The difference between intention and abdication — and the one question that will tell you which side you are on.
AI can hold the ladder. But you have to do the climbing.
This episode is for anyone who uses AI and wonders whether it is helping them become more themselves — or quietly less.
Research Referenced:
Frimpong, V. (2025). Empathy and the Human-Moment Gaps of AI Chatbots: Insights from Empathy Displacement Theory.
Evet DeCota is an ICF-certified life coach and psychology-informed thinker. To learn more or work with Evet directly, visit decotalifecoaching.com. New episodes of The Original Self Podcast drop weekly.