Better Together

A recent survey found 30% of workers are using ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools to help them do their jobs, and 10% use these tools on a daily basis. These AI-savvy workers are enjoying significant gains in productivity, in tasks like writing, troubleshooting, programming, operations monitoring, and much more. On average, the survey says, workers who use AI complete their tasks in about one-third of the time they would have needed to perform the tasks themselves. 

Clearly, there’s an enormous advantage to be had in time savings alone by learning to use AI in your daily work. But AI is more than a tool, even an epochal one like the steam engine or the internet, says Ethan Mollick. Mollick co-directs the Generative AI Labs at the Wharton School, where he’s a distinguished faculty scholar studying AI’s effects on work, entrepreneurship, and education. He writes a popular Substack newsletter about the implications of AI for education and work, posts about AI developments on LinkedIn for nearly a quarter-million followers, and was named one of the Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence by TIME Magazine.

Far beyond a mere tool, Mollick believes generative AI represents a “new form of intelligence,” one that, although made by and for humans, is distinctly different from us. He calls it “the alien in the room.”

Alien Intelligence

“The alien in the room” might sound like the tagline for a sci-fi horror movie, but Mollick isn’t interested in fearmongering about existential risks. Instead, practical-minded and optimistic, Mollick’s focus is on guiding people to do their jobs and live their lives better through generative AI. As a “co-intelligence,” generative AI can augment or even replace human intelligence, Mollick says, and the results of this human-machine collaboration can be dramatic.

Humans, walking and talking bags of water and trace chemicals that we are, have managed to convince well-organized sand to pretend to think like us.Ethan Mollick

Mollick cites the example of a student in one of his classes at Wharton, where Mollick discussed the very first iteration of ChatGPT only a few days after its release in November 2022. Even before the class ended, the student had used the AI tool to develop a prototype for a start-up product; within 24 hours, his project had attracted the attention of venture capitalists. Mollick himself recounts how he was able to use ChatGPT to create a simulation for teaching negotiation skills. In a few minutes, the AI tool produced a simulation comparable to one that had taken Mollick’s team months to complete.

With these illustrations as motivation, Mollick offers a road map to help readers understand and apply the power of generative AI themselves, at work, at school, and in their personal lives, to aid productivity, learning, creativity, and professional development.

But first, Mollick offers a set of four principles for working with AI. Number one, don’t assume you know in advance which tasks generative AI will excel at or where it will fail. Although AI systems exist within a machine, Mollick says, they tend to struggle with tasks that traditional computers do well. On the other hand, ChatGPT has proved itself an expert sonneteer. Experiment to find out how generative AI can serve you best.

In field after field, we are finding that humans working with an AI co-intelligence outperforms all but the best humans working without AI.Ethan Mollick

Second, remember that you need to be the “human in the loop,” working alongside the AI system to provide human judgment and expertise. Third, think of the generative AI tool as though it were a person, but one you can give an identity. By providing a persona — an MBA professor or a comedian, for example — you make it clear to the AI how it should respond to your queries. Fourth, keep in mind that AI is in its infancy, and will continue to develop — probably very rapidly. In other words, the AI you’re using now isn’t very good, but it will get much, much better.

Colleague, Coach, Mentor, and Maker

Mollick goes on to offer approaches, tips, and caveats for employing generative AI as a co-worker, teacher, private tutor, or creative partner. He points out that the AI revolution is having its greatest impact on white-collar work, citing research showing only 36 out of 1,016 job categories require skills AI can’t perform or contribute to in any way. That doesn’t mean that alien intelligence is going to take your job, Mollick promises — but it does underscore the need to learn how to work with generative AI.

In education, Mollick says, the use of AI tutors promises to improve students’ experiences and outcomes. AI systems can craft instruction and activities based on an individual’s unique needs, solving the problem that there just aren’t enough teachers to work with students individually.

The people who get the biggest boost from AI are those with the lowest initial ability — it turns poor performers into good performers….AI acts as a great leveler, turning everyone into an excellent worker. Ethan Mollick

AI could transform the post-formal-education apprenticeship system, too, Mollick believes. Today, tradespeople such as carpenters, plumbers, and electricians learn through years of on-the-job training, practicing their trade under more experienced mentors who provide feedback and knowledge. AI systems can’t yet completely replace an experienced mentor, but they can provide appropriate instruction and encouragement at crucial moments, and the apprentice can ask the AI questions as needed. The whole time, the AI is accumulating detailed information about the apprentice’s performance.

Mollick points out that generative AI tools have already shown themselves to be competent writers, and AI tools are starting to demonstrate the ability to generate art, music, and video themselves, a development some people find disturbing. Mollick suggests the progress of AI and its myriad creative capacities might force people to reassess the nature and boundaries of creative work.

Elsewhere, Mollick has written, “The flood of intelligence that may be coming isn’t inherently good or bad — but how we prepare for it, how we adapt to it, and most importantly how we choose to use it will determine whether it becomes a force for progress or disruption.” With this smart, clear, and comprehensive book, Mollick is doing laudable work in showing how generative AI can serve as a powerful partner and ally — not a threat — to those whose jobs and lives are about to be transformed by it.