Summary of Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick: Living and Working with AI

By GP SUMMARY

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick: Living and Working with AI

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter provides an astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor and author of the One Useful Thing Substack newsletter, presents Co-Intelligence, a playbook for working, learning, and living in the new age of AI. Mollick explores the practical aspects of AI's potential to transform our world, urging us to engage with AI as co-worker, co-teacher, and coach. He highlights its profound impact on business and education, challenges us to harness AI's power without losing our identity, and harnesses its gifts for a better human future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Apr 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9783755474180

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

THREE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

The cost of getting to know AI is at least three sleepless nights. After a few hours of using generative AI systems, it becomes clear that Large Language Models (LLMs) act more like a person than expected. This realization leads to questions about the future of work and education.

An academic studying innovation, an academic studying AI, has been involved in work on the applications of AI, especially for learning. AI research has always seemed to be on the edge of a massive breakthrough, but most practical uses have advanced slowly. During this time, the author kept experimenting with AI tools, including OpenAI's GPT models, figuring out ways to incorporate them into their work and assigning students to use AI in class.

Just after the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the author demonstrated the new tool to his undergraduate entrepreneurship class, demonstrating how AI can help generate ideas, write business plans, turn those plans into poems, and generally fill the role of company cofounder. By the end of the class, one of the students had created a working demo for his entrepreneurship project, which led to venture capital scouts reaching out to him by the end of the next day.

The author recognized that he wasn't immune to these changes and decided to get hands-on and put the AI through its paces. He built simulations that teach business skills, such as negotiation, using thousands of lines of code.

Every week, AI serves up new miracles or concerning developments, such as creating beautiful images, coding in Python, and discovering something remarkably close to an alien co-intelligence that can interact well with humans without being human or sentient.

General Purpose Technology (GPT) refers to once-in-a-generation technologies that impact every industry and aspect of life. AI, or generative AI, is a significant advancement that has taken many decades to develop and become useful. For example, the internet took nearly three decades to achieve general use in the 1990s, while computers took decades to become useful. Large Language Models (LLMs) have become increasingly capable and have been adopted by consumers quickly.

AI's impact on work and education may be less than previous GPTs, as it works as a co-intelligence, augmenting or potentially replacing human thinking. Early studies have found that AI can lead to a 20 to 80 percent improvement in productivity across various job types. However, economists have struggled to show a real long-term productivity impact of computers and the internet over the past twenty years.

GPTs also impact every aspect of our lives, such as teaching, entertainment, and self-expression. Schools are grappling with the future of writing, AI tutors may change education, and AI-driven entertainment is allowing personalized stories. Misinformation is already flowing through social networks, making things increasingly strange.

AI has been a topic of discussion for many, with many believing it to be the spark of a new form of intelligence. AI has surpassed the Turing and Lovelace Tests, acing our hardest exams, and maximizing human creativity and sentience. However, the exact reasons behind these abilities remain unclear. As a professor at Wharton, the author has been an influential voice on the implications of AI, publishing some of the first research on AI in education and business. They regularly speak with organizations, companies, and government agencies to understand the world we are creating and keep up with the rapidly evolving field of AI research. The author aims to take readers on a tour of AI as a new co-intelligence, with all the ambiguity that the term implies. To understand what AI means, we need to start with the technology of Large Language Models, discuss how AI can change our lives by acting as a coworker, teacher,