Content Rookie

Author: Nicole Michaelis

A podcast for people who want to learn Content Marketing, Content Strategy and Copywriting. Join Nicole Michaelis and guests to discuss the practice (and art) of all things content.
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Language: en

Genres: Arts, Design

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Humanized agents, deceptive patterns, and honest design (feat. Caleb Sponheim)
Friday, 3 July, 2026

Episode 77: Humanized agents, deceptive patterns, and honest design (feat. Caleb Sponheim)I recently spoke at a conference in Italy, and one talk stuck with me: Caleb Sponheim from Nielsen Norman Group arguing that we have to stop designing AI agents that fool humans. It's a topic close to my heart, so I invited him on for a longer-than-usual, wonderfully opinionated conversation. Caleb comes at it from research, I come at it from actively building agentic features, and the two angles make for a really good hour.Learning outcomes:What a neuroscience background reveals about how (and how little) we understand LLMsThe risks of presenting an AI system as a person, implicitly or explicitlyWhether natural language is really the future interface, or sometimes just a command line in disguiseHow much design should sit between the model and the user, framed through jobs-to-be-doneWhy "you are not your user" is the cardinal sin lurking in AI design, plus the sycophancy trapDeceptive patterns, humanized agents, and honest design as a deliberate choiceWhy the line between design, engineering, product, and research is blurring, and why that's an opportunityConnect with Caleb Sponheim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebsponheim/ // https://www.nngroup.com/people/caleb-sponheim/Connect with the host, Nicole Michaelis: nicoletells.com // Contentrookiepod.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoletells/ hi@nicoletells.com