Rationality, Augmentation, and the Limits of Critique

Abstract

Dariusz Jemielniak’s article presents a carefully constructed and valuably provocative case that AI systematically erodes organizational rationality. The argument is lucid, well-referenced, and arrives at a conclusion that many practitioners would do well to take seriously. This response, however, suggests that the paper’s framing rests on a characterization of AI epistemology that the research community has substantially moved beyond, and that it measures AI’s limitations against an account of human organizational judgment that is more idealized than the empirical record supports. By engaging critically with the paper’s core moves, this response does not seek to minimize the real problems Jemielniak identifies, but rather to redirect the inquiry toward the more productive questions of design, governance, and institutional structure that those problems demand. The argument proceeds from a shared concern: not AI versus judgment, but the ongoing challenge of building sociotechnical systems in which human and machine capacities genuinely complement each other.