We've done it again. Given ourselves a shiny new toy and immediately used it to poke out our own eyes. This time it's AI, and we're using it to speedrun the ancient art of mistaking confidence for competence. The competence fog isn't new—it's just thicker and has better SEO.
The orthopedic surgeon who spent thirty years perfecting hip replacements now spends Saturdays explaining bone healing to his iPhone. His YouTube channel has 847 subscribers. His competitor, an AI powered influencer, has 2.4 million.
The Eternal Comedy
This is humanity's eternal comedy: every tool that democratizes the appearance of expertise creates a golden age of grifters. The printing press gave us theologians who couldn't read Latin. The stethoscope gave us doctors who performed elaborate listening rituals. Now AI enables professional cosplay.
The administrators aren't evil—they're just doing what administrators do: reducing the irreducible to spreadsheet cells. They've been trying to measure surgery like widget production since the invention of clipboards.
The patients aren't stupid—they're doing what patients do: shopping for the diagnosis they want to hear. They've been doctor-shopping since Hippocrates. AI just gave them infinite doctors who never say uncomfortable things like "lose weight" or "sucks, you're mortal."
Reality Reasserts Itself
Here's the good news: if you're reading this, you're probably going to be fine. You get the joke. You understand that competence fog is temporary, that expertise adapts, that the real doctors are the ones who can still work when the WiFi's down.
We've been here before with every technology. The fog always lifts. The experts always adapt. The bodies get counted, the lessons get learned, and then we do it all again with the next shiny thing.