concept
The design principle that a person reviews and approves an automated system's output. In episode 01 it is qualified: Syntopic keeps a human in charge but spends their attention only where the machine is most likely to be wrong. Start at about 26 minutes.
Across the episodes
01
Enters as the design principle, immediately qualified: a human in charge, not a human doing everything
Paul asks for the control point plainly, the question a careful client would ask first.
"so how does the product in what you've built where's the check and balance where's the human in the loop"Paul Salazar, Syntopic, Episode 1 (11 Oct 2026), 26:00
The qualified version of the principle: human review is a scarce resource to be allocated, not a blanket requirement.
"we want the human to be in the loop we don't want the human to be in the loop for everything because the human's in the loop for everything"Chad Nantais, Syntopic, Episode 1 (11 Oct 2026), 26:10
The full stack: deterministic code screens, an LLM checks the code, and a person makes the final call.
"but you've got actually i said two layers actually three layers right so you've got deterministic good old-fashioned code"Chad Nantais, Syntopic, Episode 1 (11 Oct 2026), 30:48
Separates authority from labor: the reviewer decides what is published without reading every transcribed word.
"the human gets to be in charge the final arbiter the final judge but doesn't have to review every single letter that was transcribed"Chad Nantais, Syntopic, Episode 1 (11 Oct 2026), 32:00
Connections
applied inSyntopic
The review panel is where the human does this work.