Why is Martin Seligman optimistic about AI and human agency?

Martin Seligman told Hidden Brain that doomsayers dominate coverage of AI, and that his job as a positive psychologist is to ask about the upside. He said Claude helped him find the link between a chapter on agency in ancient China and one on the Bible that he had stared at for five years. He did not use the AI's wording, but it showed him the connection, and he now uses AI to test long-held hypotheses.

• Seligman compares good creative partnerships to the Wright brothers and Lennon and McCartney.
• He still says imagination has a shadow side, and that AI's downsides must be weighed, as with atomic energy.

▸In their words

“I've never had a more creative partner than Claude.” Martin Seligman · at 46:37 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Hidden Brain (2026-09-28). Read the whole episode summary →

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