With each new technology, certain human skills become obsolete (how many people know how to use a slide rule?). Has the internet and now, AI, rendering skills obsolete that we’d be better off retaining? From Jeffrey Tucker at The Epoch Times via theburningplatform:
Aspects of artificial intelligence have been absolutely delightful, even astonishing. We have a greater number of facts at our fingertips than ever before, plus the best tools out there draw your attention to a vast amount of literature too.
It seems to have happened so suddenly and incredibly. I find myself still adjusting to this new world. No question that it has enhanced my life. I’m developing a habit of Groking every question.
Not every answer is perfect—I’ve spent quite some time arguing with this fake brain on occasion—but it gives the mind a boost in the right direction, providing hints for anyone curious about nearly every topic.
Ten years ago, I would have had an easy time predicting a vastly smarter world to emerge from this technology. It does indeed make me feel smarter. Perhaps the best part of AI is how it has bested and will probably dislodge the multitudes of fake experts out there ensconced in academia, nonprofits, and corporate life.
They have long been paid to be repositories of information. They surely must sense that they have probably been replaced or, at the very least, their primacy in intellectual leadership faces a severe challenge. Consider too that we are just at the beginning of this. The gap between elite knowledge and that which can be known instantly by anyone will shrink ever further.
There are some mighty implications to this. It will surely lead to a restructuring of many industries, among them those that specialize in knowledge dissemination.
One can never have enough books.