Not Yet Sentient, But…

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick
Penguin/ Random House, January 1, 2024

In Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick argues that although there is a cost to becoming familiar with AI – a few sleepless nights – it’s an imperative. After just a few years of training on vast amounts of human-generated data, AI can now easily spit out great test questions (and answers); on-point emails (and essays); startlingly beautiful images; and novel ideas for student-centered projects (and solutions). And, as Mollick points out, today’s AI is the weakest AI there will ever be; it will only get better and better at what it does, which is to produce content in any voice or from any perspective we tell it to. Given this reality, Mollick argues that we should engage with AI intentionally and optimistically, and seek to combine its augmentative capacity with our creativity and productivity. AI is not (yet) sentient, but Mollick says that in order to get the best from it, we need to treat it like it is – give it a persona, tell it the rules of our engagement, give it clear and ethical boundaries, and provide it feedback when it stumbles through hallucination or immorality. In some ways, then, the best AI users are teachers or at least act like them when interacting with AI. Mollick himself strikes a strong pedagogical pose in his book, offering readers concrete tips and suggestions for ways to understand and use AI – as a co-intelligent creative partner, coworker, tutor, and coach.