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0/ as a formerly rebellious kid who valued control with a…highly independent child, I was thinking about agency and AI today. bear with me 1/ We value control even when it changes nothing. Mauricio Delgado’s “Value of Control” experiments: people guessed if a hidden number was >5 or let a computer guess. Odds were identical (~50%), yet most paid a cost to guess themselves. 2/ In fMRI scans, anticipating the chance to choose activated reward circuits—ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex—even when choice didn’t improve outcomes. Choice itself triggered a neural reward. We biologically want it! 3/3 If more people simply follow model recommendations (whether or not they improve results) should we ask whether motivation depends on making choices ourselves? Or maybe recommendations is enough illusion of control :)