While AI Is Thinking

You awaken and your mind is disoriented, yet social media appears to be already hard at work in the morning. "Here's what you can do with AI." "If you don't know this trick, you're missing out." "This boosted my productivity tenfold." These messages appear repeatedly, beckoning you to try them. And, typically, they don't live up to the hype.

Perhaps I'm using them incorrectly. Perhaps they truly help the person who shared them, but I suspect the simpler explanation is that no one truly knows yet. We are still searching for the right approach.

There isn't a clear way to utilize AI. We aren't aware of how to effectively request its assistance. We aren't certain about what to provide to it and what should remain our responsibility. It feels more like everyone is searching for the right way, rather than someone having discovered it. Consequently, it becomes somewhat tiresome when someone claims to have found "the right answer" each morning.

It's understandable that big claims capture attention more effectively. However, the individuals making these claims often come across as overly optimistic. "Everything has changed!" "There's no turning back!" "If you don't learn this now, you'll fall behind!" And I can't help but wonder: Does the world truly need to change so frequently before the first coffee?

What I genuinely desire to understand is something less grandiose. For instance: You ask AI to perform a task. And the screen displays: "Thinking..." For ten seconds. Maybe thirty. What should a human do during this time? Shake out your shoulders. Gaze out the window. Sip some water. Close your eyes. Contemplate something completely unrelated. Instead of teaching me how to accelerate AI, I would prefer someone to teach me how to cope while AI is pondering. I would read that article immediately.

Perhaps the Empty Time is the Point. If AI provides us with a bit more time, perhaps we don't need to fill that time with something else. Maybe enhancing convenience doesn't mean being able to accomplish more tasks. Perhaps it could mean something smaller and better. Maybe convenience is having a little extra time in which nothing needs to be done.