Image prompt: Centaur, but part human part AI
[The following was copied and pasted from GPT-4 after I fed it a transcript of a 3 minute ramble I had recorded while walking just now and asked it to turn it into a 1000 word blog in the style of Morgan Housel]
(Untitled)
The arrival of AI and advanced technologies such as GPT-4 often stirs up a wave of debate, as people grapple with the question: How will this new, potentially disruptive technology affect our lives, our professions, and indeed, our very existence? We, as humans, tend to grapple with uncertainty by seeking examples from the past to inform our understanding of the present and future. A time-tested approach, indeed.
So, to understand our relationship with AI, let's revisit a pivotal moment in history: the moment when a computer first beat a human in chess.
In 1997, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov famously lost a match to IBM's Deep Blue, marking the first time a reigning world chess champion had been defeated by a machine. This event signaled the dawn of a new era, where AI had demonstrated its capacity to outmaneuver human intelligence in a highly strategic game.
A similar scenario played out a couple of decades later when AlphaGo, an AI developed by DeepMind, managed to beat a human champion at Go, a board game considered even more complex than chess.
In these instances, AI showed us its potential - its ability to simulate, even surpass, human intellect in specific contexts. However, it's what happened next that's truly fascinating.
After their initial defeats, chess players didn't throw in the towel. Instead, they began to learn from AI, using it as a tool to improve their strategies. I first encountered this idea in a book called "Game Plan" by Frank DuPont, who writes under the Twitter handle @fantasy_douche. DuPont's work delves into the intersection of technology and sports strategy, revealing how decision-making in football, for instance, could benefit from technological insights.
His book also sheds light on the evolution of chess players in the wake of AI. Players began using AI as a tutor, exploring different scenarios, learning from the moves the AI proposed. And guess what? The players improved. Their game became stronger, sharper, better. They began working *with* the AI, not against it. They embraced the technology and leveraged it to their advantage.
Think about it: the introduction of calculators did not end math. Instead, they transformed the way we approached calculations, aiding us in complex equations and improving our overall efficiency. Similarly, the advent of AI does not signal the end of human intelligence, but rather a new partnership.
Some refer to this hybrid of man and machine as "centaurs" - creatures from mythology that are half human, half beast. It is a powerful metaphor for our potential coexistence with AI. Just as a centaur combines the strength of a horse with the intellect of a human, the human-AI partnership can merge the raw processing power of machines with the creativity, empathy, and nuanced understanding of humans.
As we navigate the era of GPT-4, we stand at a similar crossroads. Will we fear AI, fight against it, or will we embrace it, learn from it, and use it to our advantage?
History has shown us that working with AI, instead of resisting it, has the potential to significantly enhance our abilities. By becoming 'centaurs' in our modern world, we can harness the power of AI to not only augment our professional lives but also to create a harmonious future where technology and humanity coexist, each enhancing the other.
The AI revolution, in all its disruption and uncertainty, offers us an incredible opportunity - a chance to expand our horizons, elevate our capabilities, and navigate complex challenges.
In essence, our task is not to outsmart AI, but to use it as a tool to better ourselves. As we stand on the brink of a new era, we have the chance to harness this powerful technology