It is not 2nd best when the best would never have happened.

Antony Slumbers / Midjourney

It is not 2nd best when the best would never have happened.

I have ‘read’ 6 research reports this morning, relating to Skills, Science, AI and Foreign Policy.

A total of 533 pages.

Or rather I have read comprehensive summaries of each of these, the result of fairly elaborate prompts given to ChatGPT 4o.

‘But that’s cheating. Very much a 2nd best approach. You should read the reports A to Z.’

Some would say.

And they’d be right if the alternative was to read each of these cover to cover.

But that’s not the alternative is it? The realistic alternative is to read none of them, or maybe one in full.

Much of AI is about enabling things to happen that simply would not happen without it.

It’s not about replacing human skill, it’s about enabling humans to build bigger pies.

And bigger pies matter. Without bigger pies there won’t be much left for us to do. With them, the upside is infinite.

Something to think about the next time you read or hear about AI making us lazy and stupid.