This post was inspired by David Knott's post about cognitive offloading.
There is a lot of discussion about the effect of AI on our own ability to think. If we outsource thinking to AI, people say, we lose our ability to think for ourselves. The research will take years to settle, so here's one way I've been thinking about it.
The important question with AI is not "how can it help me do today's work?" It is far more interesting to ask "what work becomes possible because AI exists?" Used well, AI changes the economics of thinking.
I see using AI as like riding a bike. When moving from walking to riding, you can create problems for yourself. Riding is much less taxing than walking so you will burn fewer calories, not push your muscles which will slow development, and overall make life easier at the cost of exercise.
But this is if you approach riding lazily, with a mindset of "I want to do what I was doing, but easier". Assuming no change, no growth, just a different tool.
Asking different questions creates opportunities. You could optimise for speed, saving time on that regular journey and reintroducing exercise. You could see new capabilities opening - you can go further, see different things. You can use the technology to extend your horizons.
Such it is with AI. Sure, we can use it to automate what we're already doing (kinda). But if we get a bit more creative, we can ask a different question - what can I do now I couldn't before? What new spaces can I build or create? That said, there will be times something really is drudgery. In that case, we can try to reduce the effort until it is trivial. This gives us a most precious resource - time.
Instead of allowing our critical thinking to atrophy with AI, we refocus it on whatever comes next. We still think. AI gives us the opportunity to redeploy our cognitive effort where it adds the most value.
