Book Summary: Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

Cutting through the noise of AI evangelists and AI doom-mongers, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick has become one of the most prominent and provocative explainers of AI, focusing on the practical aspects of how these new tools for thought can transform our world.

In Co-Intelligence, he urges us to engage with AI as co-worker, co-teacher and coach.

Sharing some of the big ideas from his book, i.e. on rules for co-intelligence, i.e. how do we ‘work with’ AI.

Principle 1: Always invite AI to the table.

You should try inviting AI to help you in everything you do, barring legal or ethical barriers. As you experiment, you may find that AI help can be satisfying, or frustrating, or useless, or unnerving.

Incorporate AI into your workflow, staying within legal and ethical bounds. Experiment to discover where it shines, falls short, or even raises concerns. By understanding AI's capabilities, you'll be better equipped to navigate a future where it plays an increasing role. Remember, AI is a tool to be leveraged, not a substitute for human judgment.

Principle 2: Be the human in the loop.

For now, AI works best with human help, and you want to be that helpful human. As AI gets more capable and requires less human help—you still want to be that human. So the second principle is to learn to be the human in the loop.

Currently, AI functions best when we actively help it along. Make yourself indispensable in this process. As AI capabilities increase, don't become passive - double down on your role as the 'human in the loop'.

A more detailed review on BigIdeas newsletter by Ashish Sinha coming this Saturday.