The Waymo effect: how AI is quietly making research less collaborative

AI-powered autonomous vehicles exemplify what researchers call the "Waymo effect"—technologies that remove friction from human interaction, making solitude feel like an unambiguous gain while obscuring the hidden benefits of collaboration. The article warns that as such frictionless technologies become ubiquitous, researchers and knowledge workers may increasingly opt for isolation over the challenging but valuable work of in-person collaboration, potentially undermining the collaborative foundations of research.