Reading Science Fiction With An AI

I’m reminded of a funny quip I saw on television. A journalist was interviewing an AI expert, and the man said to the interviewer, “If you want to know what living with superintelligence will be like, ask a chicken.” I fear we might cede intellectual activity to AIs. I recently read How to Rule the World by Theo Baker. It’s about Baker’s first year at Stanford University. You’d think students getting into Stanford would be anxious to learn, yet, according to Baker’s book, many are there to hook up with a venture capitalist because they dream of becoming billionaires. And for many in the tech world, they are ceding the joy of invention to AIs. The goal everywhere is to make those billions and not to learn or create. My first impulse is to ignore artificial intelligence. It seems like any use of it is trading learning and creativity for convenience. But then I wondered: Can I compete with AI? Competition makes us stronger. I can’t beat AIs on speed or comprehension. However, could I…