AI (in this case, meaning mostly LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude) is powerful and can be very useful! It’s great at transforming text, converting formats, generating code, and more.
But/and there are ways to use it to get the most out of it. Knowing what it can do well and what it can’t do well lets us choose where, when, and how to use it. In particular, using AI can be worthwhile when verifying the output is quicker and easier than producing it ourselves.
Ask for critical review, rather than asking for approval
Be a student. Ask AI to find holes, mistakes, and improvements in the work, rather than ask it if we’re right.
- AI is fast at generating options, but less useful for confirmation. To varying degrees, it’s trained to tell us what we want to hear. Even if we suggest a bad idea, the AI can say it’s a good idea, and tell us we’re right.
- This can be especially tricky for high-stakes and/or interpersonal topics!
Treat responses as a possible answer, rather than the only answer
Be a scientist. Use AI when we don’t need the same output for the same input.
- AI output is probabilistic, non-deterministic: the same input won’t always give the same output. That’s useful for making variations, but it can mean trouble when we need precision or accuracy!
- Sometimes plain old automation is all we need, so keep an eye out for that.
Check the details, rather than trusting them
Be a detective. Don’t treat AI output as factual information: check everything it produces, in fine detail, for accuracy and consistency.
- AI produces plausible text rather than facts. True things are often the most plausible, but not always!
- This leads to “hallucinations”: confidently stating false information as true. In particular, AI tends to get specific facts wrong. There has been some progress on this, though.
Try “AI in the loop”, rather than “human in the loop”
Be a surgeon! Use AI precisely and accurately, use it where it’s strongest: reviewing, providing options, general rather than specific things. But/and start with the problem rather than AI as the solution. Do some of the work/thinking without AI first.
- When we start with AI as a solution, we look for problems that AI can solve. Doing the thinking ourselves first helps guard against cognitive atrophy and cognitive offloading.
- AI makes it easier to jump to an answer rather than deeply considering the question and the process to get to the answer. The process is where we learn and make decisions. It’s where we’re challenged and apply active effort, critical thinking, and analysis.