Human Superpowers + AI

We've all heard about 'negative bias'. It is that primitive instinct to prioritise negative outcomes, as a survival mechanism. People are understandably terrified that AI-powered tools will drive us knowledge-worker minions to penury and destitution. How can we possibly compete with large language models (LLMs) that have instantaneous access to 13 trillion words? It has been calculated that it would take 2 million years for an individual to have exposure to this amount of data at our average daily consumption of words. And we are puny in comparison when it comes to analytical processing power.

But here's the thing.

TRUTH for AI is how frequently something has been said. AI/LLMs are a mirror of the data that trains them. As Professor Teppo Felin beautifully illustrated last week, if AI had existed in 1633 when Galileo announced his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around, AI would have disagreed with him. Likewise, AI would have disagreed with the Wright brothers that humans could build a machine that would fly. All the reasoning and data that existed to the point that Galileo and the Wright Brothers came forward flatly refuted both possibilities. AI would have reflected this.

Getting to the TRUTH is not about "more data". It is about ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS to overcome the right problems or issues. Humans engage in forward-looking reasoning. Breakthroughs happen when brave souls stubbornly explore their theories (unproven) with the right experiments and generate the right data. While the establishment concluded that 'heavier than air bodies could not fly', the Wright brothers asked, 'How do we generate more lift?'.

I firmly believe the future will be defined by HUMANS + AI. This is exactly how my research tool (Soothful) operates: It draws on the superpowers of AI to help us get to the right answers easier and quicker (and at less cost). If you are working on a product, service or innovation idea that needs answers to YOUR specific questions, get in touch.

For the inspiration behind this post, I am completely indebted to Teppo Felin's webinar he gave on behalf of Oxford’s Said Business School last week.