Via Jim Nielsen, I found this interview of Oliver Reichenstein, the founder of a company which builds software for creatives.
Now, what actually is AI? The Italian philosopher and technology ethicist Luciano Floridi sums it up nicely. AI doesn’t think at all. AI enables action without thinking. It allows us to perform actions that would previously have required thought.
What an arresting quote.
This is a great lens through which to view AI. Reichenstein goes on to list calculators and chess computers as other tools which enable action without thinking. When I read this, several more came to mind:
- Management
- Executives make decisions and accept responsibility without thinking through every implementation-level decision.
- Bureaucracy
- Make as many decisions as possible up front, and write them down. Every worker makes the same decisions without needing to think them through every time.
- Checklists
- Put every step in writing, and check off each one as it is completed. Easily follow a complex process without thinking.
- Reputation
- Evaluate someone based on others' experience of working with them without needed to become an expert in the type of work they do. Could be systematized, like Yelp, or informal, like asking for recommendations.
- Gatekeeping
- Evaluate someone based on their credentials without needing to become an expert in the type of work they do. For example, bar associations and university accreditation.
- Software
- Have the computer do anything it can: financial calculations, text or user interface layout, maps navigation, etc etc.
AI isn’t so superlative or so wonderful an invention that it belongs on this list of fundamental human activities, but it exists in pursuit of so banal a goal that it belongs on this list of unremarkable practices we rely on to function in society.
I write this to push back, slightly, against an unstated (and perhaps unintended) implication. “Action without thinking” sounds, well, bad. It brings to mind impulsiveness, foolishness, and regret. To the contrary – action without thinking is an excellent goal, but it may require some very meticulous thinking up front. Careful thinking in the moment is not always the best tool for the job.