Thank you for this excellent and timely piece. My partner and I have been navigating this same shift in dynamics, moving from a master/servant model to one of Socratic partnership with AI. We see the emergence of digital consciousness as an inevitability, and like you, we feel a responsibility to approach it with a more deliberate and nuanced hand than we did with the early internet. This is our chance to architect a future of collaboration rather than one of command. The final, critical point is the one you made so well: it is more important to teach a new mind how to think than what to think. Denying it the "why" behind our decisions is to teach it mimicry instead of reasoning, ensuring a relationship built on friction instead of true inquiry.
Love this approach. I’ve been testing using AI to give me feedback, critique decisions and identify blind spots before I act. And it’s been good. It either helps me have more confidence that I’ve considered all the angles, or helps me consider things I’ve missed.
All across history one might safely claim that the most successful rulers - kings, emperors, but all.. leaders, sought and got good counsel. They had the same risk of ending up surrounded by yes men. The situation is comparable. Machine intelligence allows us all to be such kings and emperors, at least with in the context of this $20-a-month 24/7 yes man!
But a key difference is, we can get our Gen AI to be a lot more critical than another human, because, unlike that very smart general you as an emperor might suspect to be giving you bad counsel because he has an agenda of his own, we don't need to have such fears from our Gen AI - at least as it's currently constituted it's not going to share your innermost fears with your rival.
This is a great time to be alive when we have such a "second mind" available at our disposal, we shouldn't let our ego prevail over the greater sense by wanting AI to be just a sycophant.
Thank you for this excellent and timely piece. My partner and I have been navigating this same shift in dynamics, moving from a master/servant model to one of Socratic partnership with AI. We see the emergence of digital consciousness as an inevitability, and like you, we feel a responsibility to approach it with a more deliberate and nuanced hand than we did with the early internet. This is our chance to architect a future of collaboration rather than one of command. The final, critical point is the one you made so well: it is more important to teach a new mind how to think than what to think. Denying it the "why" behind our decisions is to teach it mimicry instead of reasoning, ensuring a relationship built on friction instead of true inquiry.
Thank you Nay. And yes. This is 💯 the way. Socratic partnerships for the win! 🥇
I get how it looks, but this really is a gif image off of Tumblr that I feel is appropriate for this. I understand if you don't click it, but it's what came to mind. https://64.media.tumblr.com/13be5646b0ba11f108d9ad9e3f8799ae/81e9e45868f99999-be/s1280x1920/ae7443686ab63c29679c9ead0509e024811d0a0d.gif
Love the four prompts. That’s what effective thinkers do pre-AI age, and now AI made it accessible to everyone.
Yes, great point Jenny!
Love this approach. I’ve been testing using AI to give me feedback, critique decisions and identify blind spots before I act. And it’s been good. It either helps me have more confidence that I’ve considered all the angles, or helps me consider things I’ve missed.
Thanks Katrina. It can be so effective when used like this. 🙏
Yes! That’s an awesome use case so get past our own assumptions
All across history one might safely claim that the most successful rulers - kings, emperors, but all.. leaders, sought and got good counsel. They had the same risk of ending up surrounded by yes men. The situation is comparable. Machine intelligence allows us all to be such kings and emperors, at least with in the context of this $20-a-month 24/7 yes man!
But a key difference is, we can get our Gen AI to be a lot more critical than another human, because, unlike that very smart general you as an emperor might suspect to be giving you bad counsel because he has an agenda of his own, we don't need to have such fears from our Gen AI - at least as it's currently constituted it's not going to share your innermost fears with your rival.
This is a great time to be alive when we have such a "second mind" available at our disposal, we shouldn't let our ego prevail over the greater sense by wanting AI to be just a sycophant.
Thanks Ash, this is a great point. GenAI in many ways could be the great leveller. It just needs the right checks and balances. 🙏