What Are We Amplifying?

What Are We Amplifying?

Note: read the article version of this podcast at DonnKing.com/108Art.

I use tools to externalize parts of my brain.

That sounds more dramatic than it is. A grocery list does it. So does an address book, a mind map, a voice memo, or a conversation with a friend. They let me move something outside my head so I can remember it, examine it, rearrange it, or think about it differently.

Artificial intelligence can do that, too. These days, that raises all sorts of questions about creativity, writing, and what remains distinctly human when machines can do things we once thought belonged exclusively to us.

In this episode, I’m less interested in deciding whether AI is inherently good or bad than in asking a question I find much more useful:

What are we amplifying?

The Big Takeaway

Human beings have always extended themselves through tools. The important question isn’t simply whether we use them. It’s what we’re using them to extend. Do we become more human, or less?

A tool can amplify creativity, judgment, curiosity, and clear thinking. It can also amplify carelessness, dishonesty, and bad judgment.

Yes, the technology matters (and that’s not yet another AI-ism; it’s just true). But the human using it remains the one essential element in the outcome.

In This Episode