The good, the bad and the ugly of AI

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What is generative artificial intelligence doing to your mind?

Here are some hypotheses from three smart thinkers, starting with the omnipotence dilemma.

Neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff uses that term to refer to the situation when being able to do nearly everything because of AI’s capabilities prevents you from achieving anything. “I’ve noticed a worrying shift: I keep starting new things and finishing very few. It feels like being surrounded by infinite drafts,” she writes on her blog.

When beginning something no longer requires much sacrifice, she finds it stops functioning as a decision point. She doesn’t need to choose one path instead of another; she can begin several at once and nothing forces prioritization anymore. “This is the rise of what’s been called autocomplete culture: Instead of wrestling with an idea, you refine options already proposed to you. Yes, you can generate anything, yet less of it feels fully yours,” she says.

As well as endless plausible courses of action and cheap starts comes endless iteration. Projects are continually refined, abandoned or replaced, creating the sensation of progress even when nothing meaningful moves forward. “The deeper cost is that you outsource the hardest but most important part of creative work: Forming a view. What becomes scarce is no longer skill or access. What becomes scarce is attention, conviction, taste, trust, time and responsibility,” she says.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman, author of the bestseller Emotional Intelligence, is intrigued many people are turning to AI not just for productivity but for reflection, coaching, decision-making and emotional support.

“Some of the most common uses of AI have involved people turning to the technology to help them think through difficult conversations, navigate life decisions, organize competing priorities, clarify goals and make sense of their emotions. This suggests that many people are grappling with a challenge that information alone cannot solve. Rather than seeking more facts, they are seeking help making sense of complexity, uncertainty and competing priorities,” he writes in an article for Korn Ferry.

He notes that is the heart of emotional intelligence. We usually think of emotional intelligence being about self-awareness, empathy and relationship management. But those activities ultimately serve the larger purpose of helping us act in alignment with our values and aspirations.

“The growing use of AI for coaching, reflection and emotional support may reveal something deeper than enthusiasm for a new technology. It may reflect a growing desire for perspective and clarity in a world that offers no shortage of information,” he says.

Venture capitalist Sahil Bloom worries about losing our sense of sharpness as we increasingly outsource so much to AI.

“Hire a personal chef, you’ll probably lose some of your cooking skills. Hire a money manager, you’ll probably be less in tune with your finances. Hire an analyst, you’ll probably become less proficient with analysis,” he writes on his blog.

“That’s fine when you’re outsourcing specific, lower-leverage tasks, but it can become irreversibly damaging when the outsourcing slowly spreads into the deeper functions of your mind.”

He foresees a gradual weakening of your cognitive, emotional and creative muscles – a loss of the subtle connective tissue that shapes who you are and how you see the world.

The solution isn’t to reject AI, which would be impractical and misguided. Instead, he advises you to embrace “first-pass thinking,” which is when you wrestle at the earliest stage with an idea before it has any form or function.

Specifically, clarify the problem, your perspective and what you actually believe before asking a machine to weigh in. Write first drafts yourself before involving AI. Form an initial core judgement, then use tools to pressure-test or improve it.

As well, seek cognitive friction. Put your brain in challenging situations. Pursue the discomfort of not knowing answers – of having multiple ideas in your head at once.

Another guiding principle – harkening back to the omnipotence dilemma – should be to do less but deeper. “You aren’t ‘paid’ for doing hundreds of things poorly, you’re paid for doing one thing beautifully,” he says.

AI comes with some good and some bad (and some ugly). Be mindful of its impact on your mind.

Quick hits

• Many unknowns affecting your life are not really unknowns, observes time management writer Laura Vanderkam. Three prime examples: Traffic, illness and weather. Expect them to adversely affect you and create back-up plans in advance.
• Back when she was an executive at Microsoft, Jenny Wood recalls having 50 impressive candidates for an opening but picking for an interview someone who wrote under hobbies: ‘Recipe-tasting in pursuit of the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie.” Now a career advisor, Ms. Wood says in her newsletter you should keep that in mind for your own resumes: One authentic, memorable detail can help you show personality and stand out from the crowd of like-sounding resumes.
• When meeting someone new, psychologist Adam Grant suggests instead of asking “What do you do?” ask “what do you love to do?” 

Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.