Why “think with” AI?
The following is an excerpt from How to Think with AI, A Simple Guide to Boost Creativity and Cognitive Performance, by Alison McCauley.
Suddenly, anyone who can write or speak can easily tap into powerful new machine intelligence to boost their intellectual firepower and ability to create.
Today’s AI offers us a creative, “imaginative” thought partner that can tackle open-ended goals and support us even if our thinking is still messy and raw. It “understands” our human way of communicating. For the first time, we can use software to truly help us think.
Meet your new “thought machine.” No matter who you are, what demands you face, or what dreams and aspirations you have, you can harness the vast corpus of human knowledge these tools have ingested and channel it to help you with anything you want to do, achieve, or create—all without technical expertise or coding skills.
Just how much knowledge are we talking about? Today’s most advanced AI systems can ingest eight trillion words—equivalent to reading about 100 million books . . . in a single month of training.[i] It would take a human, reading every day for eight hours, more than 180,000 years to read that many books. (That’s over 2,000 lifetimes!)[1] By collaborating with AI, you can boost your own cognitive power by having the incredible computational power of these machines behind you, opening doors to new solutions and ideas you might never have reached on your own.
These tools are so potent that they’re poised to reshape the landscape of personal and professional success, as well as organizational performance. Those who learn to tap into AI’s power have cognitive leverage. They will be able to achieve more and perform better, while those who don’t risk falling behind in an increasingly AI-augmented world.
This is why it’s time to learn how to Think with AI.
Thinking with AI is not about using AI as a substitute for the work of our own brain. While AI will become increasingly capable of making and acting on decisions for us without our intervention, this book pursues a different goal. This book focuses on strategically enhancing our own cognitive abilities while keeping our uniquely human vision and creativity at the core.
Thinking with AI is collaborating with AI to amplify our human performance so we can achieve something we aren’t capable of on our own.
This approach puts human ingenuity at the helm and frees our brain to focus on where it’s really needed. It’s about using the tools to do more of what we’re uniquely good at—the things the machines can’t do. AI plays a supporting role, helping us extract more strategic and creative thinking from our own minds. These new thought machines can work for us by rapidly generating new ideas, revealing unexpected angles, surfacing ideas we’ve overlooked, quickly testing and improving hypotheses, uncovering unexpected connections in complex systems, finding patterns in massive data sets, handling tedious grunt work, personalizing and accelerating our learning process, and much more.
While much has been said about AI’s potential to boost productivity, we’re exploring a more transformative opportunity here. This is about enhancing your cognitive performance. It’s like having a tireless, always-ready collaborator helping you learn faster, understand more deeply, and create at a higher level. And it’s just a click away—once you understand the basics of managing this new relationship.
In front of you is the opportunity to tap into this unprecedented reservoir of knowledge and processing power to take you beyond the natural limits of your human brain.
Our Magnificent, Fallible Human Brain
Your human brain is beautiful and astounding. When you raise your arm and catch a ball, your brain has processed a flood of complex visual information to calculate the ball’s trajectory, speed, and position. It has not only tapped into the capabilities of specialized regions of your brain to detect orientation and motion, but has also pulled in top-down processing that leverages your prior experience and the context of this specific moment to guide and refine your perception of the ball’s movement. And this all happens in a split second.
We can recognize and distinguish between thousands of faces, often with just a glimpse. Our brains even provide us with specialized neural circuits and a range of fine-tuned regions, often completely outside of our conscious awareness, that rapidly detect and process nuanced cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language to identify and respond to the emotions of others.
Our human brains are creative and imaginative powerhouses, pulling inspiration from our lived experiences, emotions, and subjective perspectives to create or invent new things. We continually make novel connections between concepts and ideas or imagine scenarios that have no grounding in reality. This complex cognitive process fuels artistic expression, scientific breakthroughs, and the discovery of new tools and technology in a way that is unlike any machine.
As author and journalist David Brooks beautifully wrote, the human mind “evolved to love and bond with others; to seek the kind of wisdom that is held in the body; to physically navigate within nature and avoid the dangers therein; to pursue goodness; to marvel at and create beauty; to seek and create meaning.”[ii] And it does it all using only the same amount of energy it takes to power a dim light bulb.[iii]
Yet, our human brains also carry flaws and limitations. All of us carry artifacts from our ancient ancestors that function poorly in our modern world.
Cognitive biases, which lead to discrimination and irrational judgments,[iv] originated as mental shortcuts to support the quick decision-making essential to basic survival in the resource-limited world of early Homo sapiens.[v] Our brains are constantly awash in chemistry—continually fluctuating hormones and neurotransmitters—that can impact our cognitive performance and ability to make smart decisions.[vi] Fight-or-flight responses, helpful when facing lions, tigers, and bears, can be triggered by modern banalities such as a reckless driver cutting us off in traffic and lead to a cascade of physiological changes that impact our mental abilities.[vii] Stress, anxiety, inadequate nutrition, and sleep deprivation—unfortunately prevalent in our modern world—diminish our attention span and problem-solving abilities.[viii]
Each of us also carries a unique recipe of cognitive weaknesses. We’ve all been on our own individual and often lifelong journeys to discover strategies and approaches that work best for our unique cognitive profile. But no matter how much we’ve succeeded, we all have areas where we could benefit from a cognitive boost. Some of these challenges are small, but many are quite difficult to overcome. Executive functioning problems, such as difficulties with planning, organizing, and managing time are widespread. Diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which can cause difficulties with attention and focus, are increasing.[ix] According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, an estimated one in five Americans has dyslexia.[x]
Despite these challenges and limitations, our remarkable human brains continue to adapt and evolve. And now, with the advent of a new era of AI, we have powerful new tools that can open up exciting possibilities to enhance our mental capabilities in ways we’re only beginning to explore.
AI Gives Us New Tools
Thinking with AI puts our human needs and dreams at the center. We’re still relying on the almost magical abilities of our extraordinary human brain to drive us forward. But we are leveraging the new machine capabilities to help us.
At the core are AI models, such as large language models (LLMs), which are mathematical systems trained on vast repositories of the world’s digital data—from written language to videos, images, and charts. A handful of tech giants and startups have built highly advanced “frontier” models, including LLMs like GPT. However, we’re also seeing new kinds of models emerge. These include smaller models that enable AI capabilities on your phone without network connectivity, and specialized models tailored to specific industries or functional domains.
We use software to implement and interact with these models in real-world applications. In fact, AI models are increasingly woven into our everyday software and digital experiences—you may have noticed options to write, create, search, or edit with AI popping up in your enterprise software or social media apps. But we can also access the capabilities of the most advanced models directly through chatbots provided by the companies that built them. ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is one such chatbot. It offers access to OpenAI’s sophisticated GPT models through a simple interface that requires no technical knowledge.
Like our brains, AI models have limitations and flaws. To use AI effectively to enhance our thinking, we need to understand these limitations. I’ll explain these tradeoffs throughout this book so you can make informed decisions about when and how to use AI.
Unlock a New Possible with Machine + Human Intelligence
Thinking with AI means understanding how to bring machine and human intelligence together to achieve something that wasn’t possible before. We combine these two powerful forms of intelligence. Our natural brain functioning—what scholar Michael Ignatieff describes as “a distinctively, incorrigibly human activity that is a complex combination of conscious and unconscious, rational and intuitive, logical and emotional reflection . . . so complex that neither neurologists nor philosophers have found a way to model it”[xi]—works alongside AI’s vast processing power to achieve what neither could do alone. It’s a collaboration with the potential to enhance our performance as individuals, teams, and entire organizations.
Recent research offers a glimpse into one facet of AI’s potential. A study of 100,000 people across eleven occupations in Denmark found that workers estimated that using ChatGPT could halve their working time for over thirty percent of their job tasks.[xii] However, the promise of AI extends far beyond the relatively mundane benefit of time savings. Those who master the art of collaborating with AI use the technology as a force multiplier for their human capability—to help them push the boundaries of what’s possible as a human. Here are some of the ways people with high AIQ can elevate their innate potential:
Amplify ideation: AI can significantly enhance our creative processes by generating a high volume of ideas or identifying angles and perspectives we haven’t considered, often in mere seconds. It can function as a sort of superhuman brainstorming partner, rapidly exposing us to a broader set of concepts than we can achieve on our own, and stimulating our brains to think more deeply or holistically. AI can interpret and present information in various modes, such as transforming a dense report into an engaging infographic or creating a podcast-style audio summary of an academic paper’s key points—bringing complex ideas to life and triggering new thought patterns.
Have you ever stared at a blank page, unsure where to begin? AI can solve this “blank page problem” by filling your screen with a draft or key ideas to trigger your thinking. Even if you reject most of these machine-generated ideas, the output often jumpstarts your brain. Or, if you’ve already developed your thesis but want a sounding board to identify gaps or logic flaws, AI is a round-the-clock partner that can evaluate, suggest, and help you test your thinking. For example, a CEO shared that she does her best thinking when she has a conversation with AI because it asks her tough questions that no one else is willing to—and this pushes her to new insights.
Bridge functional knowledge gaps: Many of us excel in specific areas but face challenges when tasks require working outside our core expertise. AI can help bridge these functional knowledge gaps, allowing us to perform competently across a broader range of activities. For instance, a brilliant engineer might struggle to describe a product to a non-technical audience, or a creative designer might find financial planning daunting. AI can provide quick, competent assistance, drafting plans, projections, or documents that can give people a “head start” in areas in which they are unfamiliar. This support is particularly valuable in roles that demand diverse skills, such as entrepreneurship, project management, and small business ownership.
Deliver new skills on demand: AI is increasingly capable of performing tasks that once required years of training and highly specialized skills, making it possible for anyone to create and innovate in new ways. If you don’t know how to code, you can write a description of a website or a software feature in conversational language, and perhaps pair that with some simple sketches, and AI tools will produce working code for you. Similarly, even if you have no experience in video production or don’t have video equipment, you can describe the video you want to make, and AI tools can create realistic videos. (While this functionality is still in its infancy, it is evolving fast.) Struggling to think of an image to pair with your blog? AI can generate ideas and create one for you.
Another area in which AI is making rapid advancements is translating text, audio, and video into a wide range of languages with a click or two. Tools that offer near real-time translation are even making it possible to hold a conversation between people who don’t speak the same language. With increasingly accessible AI assistance, we may be able to eventually crush language barriers even without years of study.
Offload basic cognitive tasks: AI can handle low-level tasks at high speeds, freeing up our brains and time to focus on higher-level thinking. If you provide a starting point, even a jumbled list of goals and constraints, AI can organize these elements into logical steps and create a structured project plan. It can sift through hundreds of pages of documentation and handbooks to extract relevant information, helping you respond to customer inquiries more efficiently. AI can also analyze vast amounts of research data to surface trends and create comprehensive reports that “show its work,” eliminating the need for manual sifting.
Companies are increasingly using AI to handle routine tasks such as summarizing documents, drafting presentations, developing meeting notes, or personalizing recommendations, enabling their employees to focus on more strategic and creative work.
Bridge cognitive gaps: We all have things we aren’t good at. Regardless of where or when you struggle, AI tools can assist with tasks you find challenging, providing support tailored to your specific needs and learning style. Maybe you are comfortable with analytical challenges, but your mind goes blank when faced with a creative problem. Or creativity is your strength, but you can’t seem to organize your work into a roadmap or schedule no matter how hard you try. Or you love writing, but editing your work is a challenge.
Tools designed for people with learning differences, such as ADHD or dyslexia, are also becoming more sophisticated and accessible. And people are building their own custom AI bots in minutes without technical expertise, helping to ease the burden of individual challenges and enabling them to work more effectively.
Challenge perspectives: AI can serve as your personal devil’s advocate, expanding your viewpoints and uncovering blind spots in your thinking. By simulating diverse perspectives, it helps you break free from habitual thought patterns, revealing insights and approaches you might otherwise overlook. When creating a document or tackling a complex problem, you can ask AI to role-play and review your work from different angles. For important decisions, AI can present counterarguments, pushing you to strengthen your reasoning or reconsider your stance. When preparing for negotiations, it can argue from the opposite side to help you hone your strategy.
This approach can be valuable for personal growth, creative projects, and navigating unfamiliar professional or personal territory. Even top experts in their fields find that AI challenges and encourages them to explore new angles or perspectives they hadn’t considered before.
Turbocharge mental horsepower: AI can process, synthesize, and derive insights from vast volumes of data at speeds and scales that are humanly impossible. It’s like the cognitive equivalent of a superhero that can leap tall buildings in a single bound, allowing us to transcend the physical constraints of our brains, as well as our very human need to take breaks to sleep and eat.
These tools can now ingest information in a range of modes, so no matter how sophisticated the topic, they can help us make sense of complex written, spoken, and even visual inputs. In fields such as finance, healthcare, and research, AI is used to analyze large datasets, identify patterns, and provide insights that drive decision-making and innovation, far surpassing what could be achieved before.
For example, Google DeepMind scientists used AI to read 200,000 scientific papers, find the 250 papers that were most relevant to their research, extract the data from these papers, and format this information for easy review—and it did all this work while the scientists took a break to eat lunch. [xiii]
The real opportunity in this moment in AI is discovering how our human brain and the new AI capabilities that we now have can best work together. While this is an individual journey, it also gives us an opportunity for collective impact. Each of us has the potential to uncover how AI can compensate for our weaknesses, help us amplify our strengths, and help us with our unique needs. But collectively we also have the opportunity to discover how AI could help us drive meaningful progress on the most urgent issues our world faces. Of course, to seize this opportunity, we must first learn how to harness AI effectively.
Footnotes and References
[1] Rates vary, but adult readers typically read between 200 and 300 words per minute (wpm). Reading 100 million books, each averaging 80,000 words, amounts to a total of eight trillion words. At a reading speed of 250 wpm and dedicating eight hours a day to reading, it would take a human approximately 182,648 years to read this many words. This equates to about 2,283 lifetimes, based on an average human lifespan of 80 years.
[i]. Mustafa Suleyman, “What is an AI anyway?” [Video], TED Conferences, April 2024, https://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_suleyman_what_is_an_ai_anyway.
[ii]. David Brooks, “A.I.’s Benefits Outweigh the Risks,” New York Times, July 31, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/31/opinion/ai-fears.html.
[iii]. Vijay Balasubramanian, “Brain Power,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 32, August 10, 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8364152/.
[iv]. N. M. Daumeyer, I. N. Onyeador, X. Brown, and J. A. Richeson, “Implicit-Bias Remedies: Treating Discriminatory Bias as a Public Health Problem,” Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9121529/.
[v]. Miguel Fernández-Armesto, “Cognitive Short-Sightedness, Biases and Survival,” CCCB LAB, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, February 8, 2019, https://lab.cccb.org/en/cognitive-short-sightedness-biases-and-survival/.
[vi]. R. Hanson, “How Your Thinking Affects Your Brain Chemistry,” Psychology Today, January 31, 2023, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-courage-happiness/202301/how-your-thinking-affects-your-brain-chemistry.
[vii]. J. Taylor, “Neither Fight nor Flight Helps Us ‘Survive’ in Modern Times,” Psychology Today, March 14, 2022, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/202203/neither-fight-nor-flight-helps-us-survive-in-modern-times.
[viii]. T. H. Harvard Chan School of Public Health, “Stress and Health,” The Nutrition Source, October 2021, https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/stress-and-health/.
[ix]. National Institute of Mental Health, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd.
[x]. E. Kerr, “What Is Dyslexia?” U.S. News & World Report, April 17, 2023, https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/what-is-dyslexia.
[xi]. Michael Ignatieff, “Epistemological Panic, or Thinking for Yourself,” Liberties 3, no. 2, Winter 2023.
[xii]. A. Humlum and E. Vestergaard, “The Adoption of ChatGPT,” July 9, 2024, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d35e72fcff15f0001b48fc2/t/668d08608a0d4574b039bdea/1720518756159/chatgpt-full.pdf.
[xiii]. Google. “This is changing the way scientists research | Gemini,” YouTube video, 10:15, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPiOP_CB54A.
