Keeping humans “in the loop” is often just corporate theatre, and it’s time we stop pretending otherwise.

Look, I get it. The idea of human oversight sounds great on paper. It’s comforting to think that there’s always a person who can step in and make the “right” call when the machines mess up. But let’s be honest: in most cases, it’s just a charade. Take the recent fiasco with that autonomous vehicle company. They claimed human operators were monitoring every trip, but when a crash happened, it turned out the “humans” were juggling 30 screens and barely paying attention. It’s not oversight; it’s a smokescreen.

When does it actually help? When the stakes are high and the decisions are complex. Think medical diagnoses or legal judgments. Here, a human can bring context, empathy, and ethical reasoning that algorithms simply can’t. But for the vast majority of routine tasks, like approving social media posts or flagging emails, humans are just rubber-stamping decisions already made by machines.

So here’s the truth: if you’re not giving humans the time, tools, and training to genuinely understand and intervene, you’re not keeping them in the loop. You’re just putting on a show.

Cut the crap and let’s focus on real accountability.