Ethan Mollick teaches Management at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where the generative IA laboratory codiriges. He is a man who runs at the speed of light, when he speaks, when he writes, when he thinks: it is reflected in his essay co-sylligence, in Italian the shared intelligence, just published by Luiss Univeristy Press (pages 174, € 18), in which he tells how to “live and work together with AI”.
Professor Mollick, how do you share intelligence?
«To share it with artificial intelligence, the only way is to practice. It takes time. We must try and try again, strive, make attempts to use it, using it in those activities that are typical of our work, making us help, for example, to generate ideas, advance questions, look for answers, process feedback, write, edit, read, synthesize … we must include it in the process: this is how we really begin to use it “.
As colleague, however, it is very competitive: in a research, he writes, out of 1016 works examined, only 36 did not have overlaps with the IA.
«But we are not yet at the point of a total overlap, with every aspect of the work. It cannot yet replace us. There is what I call the Jagged Frontier, the jagged border of the IA, a phenomenon for which we do not know what to expect. For example, if a person is an expert in a specific field, my suggestion is to start using it there, in that field, and get help: only in this way can we find out in what a good help is and what it is, what it is capable of doing and what does not ».
For example in your case?
“My work as a professor includes various aspects: teaching, doing research, dealing with administrative aspects, writing articles, helping students, keeping conferences … the IA can help me in those activities in which I am weaker, while in those in which I am already strong I don’t need: here, this is co-intelligence”.
The most surprising thing?
«I use it for everything: to generate films, ideas, entertainment. I use years to write articles and texts and the IA is an excellent critic: it is better than any human eye in identifying errors and inaccuracies. And then he is very good in coding: thanks to the I create software and games “.
One of the crucial points of the book is the creativity of the AI.
«It is something that punishes us, it hurts us in a point of our brain. However, if we ask ourselves in what the IA is, the answer is not in logic or mathematics issues, but in creative and artistic activities. There is a joke that says that we would like to use the IA to make laundry, so that we can dedicate ourselves to art, but the opposite is more likely … and, in this, there is a call to something that is typically human “.
How creative is the IA?
“An experiment on innovation was done in a class, where the best ideas were judged. Well, in forty ideas judged the best, thirty -five had been generated by the AI ”.
Judged by whom?
“From human judges”.
How does the ia be so creative?
“We don’t know. We don’t know why it is so good in many different things. And, among others, it has become creative ».
Is it really creative as much as a person?
«It is difficult to measure creativity, but let’s think about what happens with the first synthesizers. People who were not good at playing started producing music, also good music. It was feared that he destroyed the music, but it did not go like this: he transformed it. In the same way, those who are not creative, thanks to the AI can become it “.
What are the “hallucinations” of the AI?
«The IA learns from statistical models of language, according to which it processes forecasts: thus creates the answers, using language tokens. In practice, guess the most likely word: he does not know if it is true or not. And then, sometimes, the results do not make sense: we call them hallucinations when confusing … “
In addition to being creative, what is the IA good in?
«It offers better diagnoses than those of many doctors. Certainly it can make mistakes, like human doctors, moreover. And we have the tests that can be very useful at school. Not to do their homework instead of the students, to answer questions in their place: in this case the one I call the apocalypse of the homework at home, in which the boys do not learn nothing. Instead, if you use it as a tutor, with the help of the teachers, it works as amplifier ».
We talked about working. As for “living” with the IA?
“I think everything is changing very quickly. In the book I made a mistake: I didn’t know how quickly the phenomenon would grew. By now millions of people in the world use the IA: they have a relationship with chatgpt, it is as if they were friends. Millions and millions of people already live with the IA ».
Why does he say he treats the IA as a person?
«The ia is not a person, this is clear. However, to use it at best, it should be treated as such: it is the original sin, which many do not like many. Since the IA has learned our language and works with us as assistant, we should consider it a person: it is the way to make it more effective. Certainly there is a risk in saying it but, to work with the IA, I believe it is the best way to approach it ».
Do we have to work with the IA?
“No. We can choose. But I don’t think it is intelligent not to do it because, when we use it, we discover that it is a valid help, which is good in many things and that it becomes always better. In any case, pretending that it is not already part of our life is simply false ».
What teaches the managers?
«Nobody really knows what the right way is to use the IA in a single job; Therefore the work of each of us is precisely to understand how to use it at best: how it can transform our job, how can the employment, the relationship with the employer, with colleagues … now, everyone uses it, because it makes the job easier: if someone does not admit it, it is only for fear ».
In your opinion, the most important areas of use?
«These are two: school and medicine. The IA cannot replace teachers, but in many areas of the planet there are no classes available to students; And then the IA can help us solve the problem of education in these places. Likewise, it can provide us with a medical diagnosis in emergency cases, in which there is no available doctor. Here, these are two good use areas, when there is no good human around ».
How did the Co-Intelligence title come to mind?
“He came to my sister. She is a manufacturer, in Hollywood. It is on the other side of the barricade: therefore, as creative, I asked her for advice … ».