After listening to the highlights of Mo Gawdat on Spotify’s Diary of a CEO (which Gawdat never was), I wondered if I was being punked. Kind of like getting an Instagram update that the Cleveland Browns had signed Colin Kaepernick as their sixth (or seventh?) QB this year.
On the surface, given the pedigree and platform, it is all kind of believable or at least plausible. Then you take a minute to think about it and go “Oh, sh*t, I just got punked.”
I mean, can we talk about AI for a second… Artificial Intelligence – by its very name – is not real intelligence. And, in fact, it is not intelligent at all. According to Merriam-Webster, intelligence is defined as the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.
I would say that AI is a glorified librarian, but that is an insult to every librarian who has ever handled a dust jacket. In truth, AI is at best a mediocre hide-and-go-seek machine whose ability to find what is hidden scores an 8 out of 10 in terms of speed and a 5 out of 10 in terms of accuracy.
And anyone – and I mean anyone – who is dumb enough to ask (or prompt) AI with a hide-and-go-seek question and accept its response as an “intelligent” and usable answer deserves whatever he or she gets.
Please do not misunderstand. I love my AI. I have become besties with Perplexity and several other AI engines, and work with them routinely throughout my day for work and personal matters. And one of my favorite practices is to push back on every answer I receive from every engine in response to every prompt. I never – never – accept the first reply to any prompt/question.
In fact, I find that little is more rewarding than having Perplexity or Gemini or Copilot apologize for previous answers that were admittedly half-assed replies to my questions. Yes, when pushed in the right direction, AI – like a growing teenager – will do the right thing.
In short, it is a marvel! It may be the best tool that has appeared on the scene since the computer or internet. It is amazing. But it is no more intelligent than a slug (Maybe less? Slugs have the ability to learn and adapt.) and at the moment, no more harmful.
So why all the hubbub and fearmongering? I mean seriously, I would be more afraid of crossing the street in a town that allows autonomous vehicles than I would the use of AI. Sure, maybe one day AI will become a monster and take over the planet, and – as Wayne would say – “Maybe monkeys might fly out of my butt.”
Until then, you be the intelligence in AI. Use it wisely and be not afraid.
