Thinking is Allowed ... and will be Required!

These is so much being said and a lot more left unsaid these days on the coming flood of AI applications and the associated changes to our lives.

I saw an interesting statement recently that should become the key principle for all of us:

London Business School economist Andrew J. Scott has said, “As machines get better at being machines, humans have to get better at being more human.”

You can address that from the humanity point of view … or from the thinking requirement that must be elevated.

Edward de Bono says to be a “real thinker” you must go beyond analysis and judgment to discover how to integrate creativity into your problem solving so you can understand “What can be”.

We learn by going from what we know to what we want to learn.  The connection between the two is critical so we can organize information into patterns that can prompt actions. This is the “critical thinking” based on established patterns and experience we use to solve problems.  Unfortunately, critical thinking often produces flawed results.  Given that humans are developing AI to replicate this process … we may be "building in" flawed or self-limiting answers to our questions and preclude development of new ideas or approaches.

Consequently, I would submit that it is our job to do that part of the much needed thinking to get superior results.  We cannot predict future outcomes but we can strive to discover “what can be” rather than ‘what is” (the AI product) to open the door to greater possibilities.

Perception and creativity may well continue to be the exclusive domain of “humans”!   For some time we are going to have to accept the responsibility to explore alternatives outside of what we and AI “knows”.   We will need to keep asking: Why are things done this way?  And … What else should we consider?  Maybe AI will help … but in the interim it will be up to us all to break constraints from thought patterns and focus on development of new approaches to generate useful ideas or to solve problems. 

Thinking and Actions … by humans … is still going to be a basic requirement for advancement and success!