How I want to use AI #
There's a lot of psychosis around AI. My belief is that as a technology, it can both be used in a way that improves the lives of people, and leveraged in a way that will harm us.
Like in the parable of two wolves, the one that wins is the one we feed. So how do we feed “good AI”?
Here's how I, personally, want to use it:
As a tool. It's here to help me, not to steal my attention or get fed by me (I have a cat for that). I want to be the active operator, not merely a clueless user or an unsuspecting audience.
To grow. As a research tool, an infinitely patient tutor who, true, might occasionally be wrong. Not as a crutch to avoid thinking.
To remove the grind. Some hard things are worth doing. Some are not. Sometimes the grind is just tedious and doesn't help us grow. Washing machines, dishwashers, and now AI (when used wisely) can free up time and energy for better things.
To stop and smell the roses. Productivity is output over time. I want the AI productivity boost to give me more time, not just more output. If AI can 10x me, a 10-hour workweek and 250% productivity increase sound vastly more preferable to 10x output.
To care about the details. More time to dedicate to the small details that usually fall below the quality fold. I want to delight and be delighted and be proud of the result. I want to use AI for anti-slop!
For silly things. Like memes, slop can be fun. Low production effort doesn't mean low creativity. Not everything in life must be serious, high-brow and a result of man's struggle.
As a power tool. Forklifts, power tools, and other machines help us shape our world way beyond our physical capability. Calculators, computers and calendars do the same for our mental capabilities.
I recognize that using AI as a power tool to remove the grind can easily transform into using it as a crutch. Here's what I keep in mind to avoid falling into that trap:
Focus. AI makes everything deceptively simple, so it's tempting to do everything. That's just wasting time.
Judgement. AI is a really fancy autocomplete tool. I still want to be in control of thinking, guiding and judging its efforts. AI can give me options, but I get to pick and choose.
Taste. I'm definitely not an artist, but as a human being I claim to have at least a spark of creativity and taste in me. For whatever it's worth, it makes all the difference between something human-made and autogenerated slop.
Intuition. I subscribe to the notion that human intuition is a superb pattern matching machine trained over our lifetime and, in work context, career. Like in the corny Star Wars line, I do want to listen to my feelings.
You may say I'm a dreamer, but it works for me. I do hope I'm not the only one. Care to join me?