In discussions about whether AI will lead humans to delegate their thinking, rather than learn how to think better by working with it collaboratively, I am reminded of Germaine Greer, the celebrated intellectual and author. When asked to list her hobbies for her entry in Who’s Who — the esteemed directory of influential people — she simply replied: “thinking”.
She embraced the agonising frustration, exhilaration, inspiration, challenge, and enjoyment of thinking through complex problems and coming up with creative ideas.
But we have to wonder, with AI becoming more powerful every day, whether the temptation simply to accept its outputs will prove too great. Will we lazily resist clear, deep thinking and instead slavishly accept the output from AI?
So we would all do well to follow Germaine Greer’s lead and start enjoying thinking — and now do so with our new collaborative thinking partner: AI.