Episode Details

When researchers labeled a random system as 'AI,' participants solved puzzles faster—even though no AI actually existed. This episode dives into a 2022 study proving that artificial intelligence functions like a sugar pill, exploring why the expectation of AI changes behavior. We use Celtic folklore's concept of 'glamour' (fairy enchantment) to explain how a label rewires performance. 00:00:00 - The Placebo Paradox: Pills and Expectations 00:02:15 - The 2022 Study: Kosh, Wilsch, Chwan & Schmidt 00:05:30 - The Experiment: 369 Participants, Zero AI 00:09:45 - The Results: Belief Affects Performance 00:12:00 - Glamour: The Fairy Folk Enchantment Metaphor 00:14:30 - Why We Fall for AI Illusions --- Sources & further reading: • Thomas Kosch, Robin Welsch, Lewis Chuang, Albrecht Schmidt — "The Placebo Effect of Artificial Intelligence in Human-Computer Interaction" (2022): https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3529225 • Agnes Kloft, Robin Welsch, Thomas Kosch, Steeven Villa — "The Placebo Effect is Robust to Negative Descriptions of AI" (CHI 2024): https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642633 • Ted Kaptchuk et al. — Open-label placebo IBS study (2010), covered in Harvard Health: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/placebo-can-work-even-know-placebo-201607079926 • Aalto University press coverage via ScienceDaily — "Just believing that an AI is helping boosts your performance": https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240513150541.htm • "AI Washing Inflates Expected Performance but Not Interaction Outcomes: An AI Placebo Study Using Fitts' Law" (2025): https://arxiv.org/html/2605.00582 • "Mitigating Placebo Effect in Human-AI Interaction: Expanding the Role(s) of the Right to Notice and Explanation": https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265161.2025.2457697 • FTC AI-washing enforcement overview — National Law Review: https://natlawreview.com/press-releases/ftc-brings-dozen-ai-washing-enforcement-cases-2025-targeting-overstated-ai • DLA Piper — "FTC AI-washing action underscores enforcement in business-to-business context" (May 2026): https://www.dlapiper.com/en-us/insights/publications/2026/05/ftc-ai-washing-action-underscores-enforcement-in-business-to-business-context • "Placebo, Nocebo, and Machine Learning: How Generative AI Could Shape Patient Perception in Mental Health Care" — JMIR Mental Health (2025): https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e78663 • "Examining Human Reliance on Artificial Intelligence in Decision Making" — Nature Scientific Reports (2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-34983-y • "Placebo Effects in Modern Medicine: Mechanisms, Clinical Evidence, Limitations, and Future Directions": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12861086/ • The Sustainable Agency — "What is AI washing & how to spot it? 2026 examples & guide": https://thesustainableagency.com/blog/what-is-ai-washing/ • Thomas Kosch — "Placebo Effects Undermine the Validity of Human-AI Studies" (blog post): https://thomaskosch.com/index.php/2023/05/20/ai-placebos-undermine-the-validity-of-human-ai-studies/ • Harvard Magazine — "The Placebo Phenomenon" (profile of Kaptchuk): https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/12/the-placebo-phenomenon This podcast episode was fully generated by AI — research, script, voices, and production. Built with Claude, Piper TTS, and automated pipeline tooling.