Resist the temptation to take credit for patchwork combinations of other people’s work. If you’re great, prove it by articulating unique ideas in unique ways. Never before has there been a better opportunity for ambitious thinkers to achieve greatness. When others are creating and consuming synthetically generated content like flying drones in a perpetual hover state, there’s an opportunity for non-drones to fly higher, farther and faster.
For example, students manipulating the system by having ChatGPT write essays miss an opportunity to learn, demonstrate a dangerously poor understanding of ethics and prove they’re no better than everyone else. Students who learn on their own, articulate original ideas and share a passion for a subject will outperform the machines by an increasingly wide margin.
The future of humans is a fusion of what machines and people do best. What can be predicted or regurgitated should be left to machines, but what requires judgment or rational thinking should be left to us. Generative AI isn’t a crutch, it’s not a panacea, and it’s not a threat to humans. We’re the only species capable of synthesizing ideas, forming opinions and making decisions based on ethical principles. Let’s use this moment in history to embrace the future while investing in our humanity.
