CONCEPT
The Priesthood Model
You On AI's name for the hope that builders with deep technical understanding will govern AI responsibly through an ethic of stewardship — and Lindblom's diagnosis of why this hope, however sincere, is structurally naive.
The priesthood model is Edo Segal's metaphor, drawn from the original sense of those who tend to something sacred, for a governance approach that locates legitimacy in expert understanding. Those who understand AI mediate between the technology and the community, bound by an ethic of stewardship that constrains their use of superior knowledge. Lindblom's framework diagnoses the model as structurally naive — not because experts are unimportant but because the ethic of stewardship is a normative aspiration, not an institutional mechanism. The market rewards engagement over wellbeing. The venture cycle rewards growth over sustainability. The professional culture rewards building over questioning. When structural incentives push against the ethic, the ethic gives way.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Segal himself provides the evidence for the model's structural weakness with a candor that is both admirable and damning. He describes building a product early in his career that he knew was addictive by design. He understood