Lightening the workload

So how can you use AI more effectively? One thing it can be useful for is critiquing ideas. Very often, people prefer not to hear criticism and feel a loss of face when their ideas are criticised – especially when it happens in public.

But LLM-generated critiques are private matters and can be useful. I have done so for a recent essay and found the critique reasonable. Pre-testing ideas can also help avoid blind spots and obvious errors.

Second, you can use AI to crystallise your understanding of the world. What does this mean? Well, because AI does not understand the causes of events, asking it questions can force you to engage in sense-making. For example, I asked an LLM about whether my university (Bath) should widely adopt the use of AI.

While the LLM pointed to efficiency advantages, it clearly did not understand how resource are allocated. For example, administrative staff who are freed up cannot be redeployed to make high-level strategic decisions or teach courses. AI has no experience in the world to understand that.

Third, AI can be used to complement mundane tasks such as editing and writing emails. But here, of course, lies a danger – users will use LLMs to write emails at one end and summarise emails at the other.

You should consider when a clumsily written personal email might be a better option (especially if you need to persuade someone about something). Authenticity is likely to start counting more as the use of LLMs becomes more widespread. A personal email that uses the right language and appeals to shared values is more likely to resonate.

Fourth, AI is best used for low-stakes tasks where there is no liability. For example, it could be used to summarise a lengthy customer review, answer customer questions that are not related to policy or finance, generate social media posts, or help with employee inductions.

Consider the opposite case. In 2022, an LLM used by Air Canada misinformed a passenger about a fee – and the passenger sued. The judge held the airline liable for the bad advice. So always think about liability issues.

Fans of AI often advocate it for everything under the sun. Yet frequently, AI comes across as a solution looking for a problem. The trick is to consider very carefully if there is a case for using AI and what the costs involved might be.

Chances are, the more creative your task is, or the more unique it is, and the more understanding it requires of how the world works, the less likely it is that AI will be useful. In fact, outsourcing creative work to AI can take away some of the “magic”. AI can mimic humans – but only humans “grok” what it is to be human.