Keeping It Human in a Digital World (1)

As you navigate this discovery process, be mindful of which mental activities bring you genuine pleasure. There’s a reason some of us bake bread despite having a great bakery nearby. Sometimes, the act itself—be it handcrafting or intellectual exploration—brings satisfaction that outweighs the need for perfection. The meaning and intellectual energy we derive from doing something ourselves can be more valuable than creating the “best” outcome. It can mean more simply because it’s ours and we put in the effort to create it.

This personal, direct engagement can go further than satisfaction—on occasion, it can also spark new ideas and breakthroughs. We have a rich history of groundbreaking discoveries that came from humans simply moving through our world, observing, absorbing, and ingesting the environment around them. Alexander Fleming noticed mold on a contaminated petri dish had killed surrounding bacteria, leading to the discovery of penicillin. Engineer Percy Spencer’s observation that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted while working with a magnetron sparked the invention of the microwave. Georges de Mestral conceived the idea for Velcro after noticing how burrs stuck to his dog’s fur during a hike.

Sure, we may eventually find ways to effectively bring AI also into this process of serendipitous discovery, but for now, this remains uniquely human. If we really want to reap the benefit of our brains, we need to continue to immerse ourselves in bringing that chocolate bar to work, taking a hike with our dog, and other quintessentially human experiences.

Notes

1 U. Agudo, K. G. Liberal, M. Arrese, et al., “The Impact of AI Errors in a Human-in-the-Loop Process,” Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 9, no. 1, January 2, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-023-00529-3. 2 David Brooks, “A.I.’s Benefits Outweigh the Risks,” New York Times, July 31, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/31/opinion/ai-fears.html. 3 Brené Brown, “The Call to Courage,” directed by Sandra Restrepo, Netflix, April 19, 2019, https://www.netflix.com/title/81010166. 4 Zher-Wen and Rongjun Yu, “Perceptual and semantic same-different processing under subliminal conditions,” Consciousness and Cognition, 111, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12631. 5 C. Soon, M. Brass, H. J, Heinze, et al., “Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain,” Nature Neuroscience 11, 543–545, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2112. 6 M. Beenman and J. Kounios, “The Aha! Moment: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 18, no. 4, August 2009, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01638.x. 7 David Eagleman, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, Pantheon Books, 2011. 8 S. M. Ritter, R. B. van Baaren, and A. Dijksterhuis, “Creativity: The Role of Unconscious Processes in Idea Generation and Idea Selection,” Thinking Skills and Creativity 7, no. 1, 2012, 21-27, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2011.12.002. 9 A. Dijksterhuis and T. Meurs, “Where Creativity Resides: The Generative Power of Unconscious Thought.” Consciousness and Cognition 15, no. 1, March 2006, 135-146, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.04.007. 10 T. K. Gandhi, D. Classen, C. A. Sinsky, et al., “How can artificial intelligence decrease cognitive and work burden for front line practitioners?” JAMIA Open, August 29, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooad079. 11 L. Bai, X. Liu, and J. Su, “ChatGPT: The Cognitive Effects on Learning and Memory,” Brain and Behavior 13, no. 11, November 2023, https://doi.org/10.1002/brx2.30.

Part Two: Decoding Change

7. How Replacing Code with Conversation Changes Everything

You might be wondering: if AI has been around for decades, why is this moment so transformative? It’s because we flipped the script on who adapts to whom.

In the past, we had to learn special languages—coding—to make machines do things. Software eventually made it easier for everyone to use computers, but non-technologists were still limited to what developers had already programmed the software to do.

Now, the machines have learned to speak our language. This not only marks a massive shift that redefines what we can achieve with software—just by using our words. It also makes it possible for the machines to actively work on understanding us. It unlocks their ability to create and “imagine” in ways that feel familiar. Instead of us adapting to them, they’re learning to adapt to us.

This unlocks massive new possibilities. Historically, we were limited in what we could automate because computers could only use structured data (which is organized and labeled information in a defined format, like that found in databases and tables) and follow pre-programmed instructions. For example, software could automatically assign leads to a sales rep based on location and deal size, or we could click a button to command software to create a shape on a slide or format a headline in a document.

Machines couldn’t process unstructured data, like the natural language that we use to write or speak. This natural language is rife with misspellings, colloquialisms, abbreviations, and other kinds of variations. We have numerous ways of expressing the same thing, and our meaning can shift based on context or other subtle differences. Our visual language—what we see or draw—is also unstructured. This meant that much of our human knowledge—information captured in written form, charts, graphics, audio, and video—essentially, much of what you can find on the internet—was inaccessible to machines.

But now, the machines can process and use the unstructured data of our natural language to not only seemingly “understand” and “reason,” but to communicate back to us. This advancement transformed AI from a rigid tool into a thought machine. Now, AI models can learn from vast volumes of human-generated data they never could process before. Now, they can perform even loose, open-ended tasks. Now, we can interact in increasingly “human-like” ways with machines—and the machines can think and create with us.

Everything Changes When Machines Speak Human