Yesterday’s post on AI’s promises and dangers, prompted two responses.
One is a personal reflection by a dedicated AI user and one from an organizational point of view based on NCUA’s application. Ironically both reach a similar conclusion about the ongoing need for human insight.
An AI User’s Perspective
(by Lara Hoyen, my daughter, posted on LinkedIn)
I felt an urge today to write down my thoughts today.
I didn’t want AI to help, though I regularly ask for assistance. To script a tough conversation with a co-worker. To translate an interview transcript into a compelling blog post. To summarize a 15 year story into a compelling couple of paragraphs.
Recently Claude’s been unlocking even more for me. I’m able to clean up years of data files and create interactive dashboards. I’ve launched webforms to standardize inputs. I’ve automated weekly email reports with project status changes.
These types of tools used to have to wait until they could move from a backlog into a sprint. Then my data team co-workers could built it.
A recent Harvard Business School study found that power users of AI, rather than being freed by AI, are busier. It intensifies their workload because they can take on broader responsibilities. The article talked about AI users experiencing “Brain Fry,” with symptoms such as mental fog and decreased focus.
This describes exactly how I’m feeling.
I’m reading to seek wisdom as I consider my response to the political upheaval that is impacting our nation, community, and neighbors. Hannah Reichel’s devotional, “For Such a Time as This,” describes the Christian church’s response to the rise of Hitler in Germany as a way to give perspectives and inspiration to Americans today. She writes about the power of letters shared between dissidents. For those that wrote them and received them, these messages helped to “clarify their thoughts, name their realities, and strengthen their resolve.”
I want to make sure I don’t lose these abilities. To reflect, apply, synthesize.
Even as I see the amazing opportunities that AI is unlocking for a resource-strapped NGO (and 501 C 3) with more work to do than people to do it.
Ann Lamott, an author I love, released a book recently on improving your writing. She explained that the power of communicating, is how we “awaken to life and to beauty… our own huge creative and imaginative spirits.” She laments that we should “stop hitting snooze… look around, breath it in, and scribble it down.”
That’s why I needed to write this post.
I wanted to reflect on the risk I face of inadvertently outsourcing my thinking to AI vs. using it as a smart assistant. I wanted to name the impact I am experiencing cognitively because of my use of these tools. And, I want to strengthen my resolve, as an antidote to these consequences, to walk through each day mindfully – noticing, reflecting, sharing, and connecting.
I’d love to hear your practices that keep you human, as you work with AI. And, where you’re seeking wisdom for such a time as this.
AI’s Organizatinal Impact & NCUA’s Example
(from RAndy Karnes, retired CEO, CU*Amswers)
What we miss in AI is that behind it all is a systemic approach to learn. Some one or thing said learn like this! Practice and learn some more. Why AI will not become the most effective teaching template for future generations is not much talked about.