ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Ethan Mollick is a Wharton professor whose newsletter, One Useful Thing, is how many people keep up with new AI models. In a September post he described four personal advantages that matter when you work with AI: deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste, and agency. The framework comes from his new book, Co-Existence: The Next Phase of AI, out October 20. Morgan brings the framework, and she and Núria take the four advantages one at a time.Deep knowledge is what lets you tell whether the AI’s output is good. Núria points out that when you ask AI to do something you are not good at, the result looks impressive, and when you ask it to do something you know well, you can see what is wrong or missing. Morgan compares it to a fitness influencer who ranks cardio exercises with complete conviction and no evidence. Wide knowledge is knowing enough about other fields to ask for them, since AI rarely offers design thinking or the Toyota production system unless you ask. Núria makes the case for abroad liberal arts base, and Morgan talks about her move into nonfiction and the finance courses from her healthcare administration degree that she still uses in her business.Núria describes taste as a point of view, and you need to know a subject before you can have one. Her example is editors who each have their own favorite writers. Morgan connects it to pharma clients who reject work they think AI wrote, and both say the problem is first-draft AI text with nobody’s taste added to it. Agency is the willingness to find out for yourself what AI can do: trying again with better instructions, asking the model how to get what you want, and coming back in a few months when the first attempt fails. Núria describes how Morgan’s script for writing subcontractor statements of work led her to write her own script for renaming research papers.In this episode: - Ethan Mollick’s newsletter and his new book, Co-Existence- Four human advantages when working with AI- Deep knowledge: why AI output looks best when you know the least about the subject- The fitness influencer problem: conviction without evidence- Wide knowledge: AI rarely offers what you do not know to ask for- The case for a liberal arts base, and following your curiosity- Morgan’s turn to nonfiction and How to Read a Book- Degrees that pay off in unexpected places- Taste as a point of view, and why editors have favorite writers- Pharma clients rejecting work that reads as AI-written- Doing it with AI versus letting AI do it for you- Agency: finding out for yourself what AI can do- Trying again with better instructions, and trying again in six months- How one shared script led to anotherLINKS: - Ethan Mollick, “The Overhang,” One Useful Thing:https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-overhang- Ethan Mollick, Co-Existence: The Next Phase of AI: https://co-existence.ai/- Hosted by Nuria Negrão (https://www.nurianegrao.com/) and Morgan Leafe (https://www.morganleafemd.com/). - Sign up for Nuria's newsletter: https://nurianegrao.kit.com/signup
