Embarrassing AI #44: Waiting for AI to think

Things built: 19 People watching: 19 Cashflow:-$152

One of the things I’ve learned to appreciate most about working with AI is how it demonstrates the cost of thinking.

Every time you ask the AI something you are also making a choice about the model you are asking it to engage.

And your choice has a material effect on your experience.

I have no idea if there is a real difference between selecting “fast” or “think” when prompting. One just takes longer than the other to spit out an answer.

Regardless of wether its real or just affect, that asking a complicated question requires time to answer has value.

We’ve been so habituated to google a question which is answered in an instant that we don’t question what it takes to give us an answer. Even if it’s the millionth time that same question has been asked.

AI, besides pleasuring us more enthusiastically than the average Bada-Bing employee, is doing more to convince us that our questions require careful contemplation than the past decade of results of random searches.

Suddenly the machine needs a minute, claims to be thinking, before giving us an answer. It’s more specific than a the results of a random google search. It’s not always less trite.

This is where taste comes in. It’s more important than ever.

Some argue that AI is robbing us of the need to engage critical thinking. But because the answers we get swing so wildly between incredibly useful and complete cow pat, the human in the loop is become more rather than less significant.

So when the 🤖 needs a moment before telling me what it thinks I want to hear, I get a moment to engage my skepticism.

It’s a blessing.

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Tools I am using to fake being an expert.

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Last Word.

The way we get information is changing, so should our assumptions about how to consume it.

Making daily progress,

P.S. Did I do something totally backwards today? Or do you have a better prompt for this? Hit reply and tell me. I’m here to learn just as much as you are. (I read every single email).