Everyone talks about what AI can do that’s impressive. Write code. Analyze data. Generate art. Make whole videos. Get your presentation done while you’re out to lunch. Those are the capabilities that make for good demos and good headlines. But I’ve been living with an AI assistant for a while now, and the thing it does that has actually changed my daily life is none of those.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what AI is actually good for. Not the stuff that gets the headlines. Not the picture-to-cartoon filters or the “write me a sonnet about my dog” party tricks. I think those are maladaptive uses. They’re novelty, not utility. Or worse, they’re clickbait for people to monetize their social media.
A lot of the discussion around AI right now is black and white. AI is either the best thing to ever happen to us, or it’s a scourge that needs to be removed from society. The biggest problem is that both sides have a point. There’s real economic and environmental destruction happening right now because of AI. There’s also real good coming out of the things being built with it, if we can learn to use them sustainably.