Unlocking the Power of Humanumation: How Generative AI is Augmenting Human Creativity and Insight
The Oracle of Delphi, who resided in ancient Greece, was oftentimes referred to as the “gateway of the gods.” People would pay homage to the Oracle in search of spiritual advice, knowing that her all-knowing guidance was a reflection, not of her own knowledge, but of the answers the gods provided in response to their queries. This ancient tradition of seeking divine insight to contextualize our own lives can trace its roots to today’s technologies.
The first time someone used a search engine to answer a question was similar in many ways to the experience of seeking the guidance of the Oracle of Delphi. It was at first a foreign concept, and yet the search engine had the potential to provide answers of truth. In a sense, search engines offer the same kinds of answers that one might expect from the Oracle of Delphi — questions of truth, insight, and knowledge.
The first time people were able to use generative AI such as ChatGPT to create content was similarly revelatory to those who experienced the Oracle of Delphi’s mystical powers. ChatGPT and DALL-E, both programs of OpenAI are game-changers in the world of technology, allowing for the creation of original content without the need for a human creator. Microsoft’s recent investment in the platform and the company’s desire to integrate this technology into their search engine and Office software suggests we are on the cusp of a radical shift in our cultural ethos, posing profound questions about the nature of creativity and authorship.
The key connection between those experiences is the notion that the quality of our outputs is directly related to our abilities to craft the questions properly. Whether we are consulting the Oracle of Delphi, running searches on Google, or Bing, or using generative AI to create text, image, audio, or video, the quality of the answers we receive is highly dependent on how we decide to ask the questions. This emphasizes the need to focus on understanding the right questions to ask in order to maximize the quality of the responses to our queries.
I am of the generation that learned how to source information using card catalogs in the library, and how to cite by hand the sources used when reporting on content. I also remember being in high school when Yahoo launched, and how much easier and faster I could find the same information when writing a paper.
Certainly, the act of researching and searching for information changed drastically with the emergence of the search engine. Search engines single-handedly sped up the time it took to research and write term papers and reports, but in the first few years of the Internet, everything was new and growing. in those early days, we had to look beyond the content found online because only a small sample had been digitized and was online. For context, when I graduated from high school, .5% of the world’s population was on the Internet. Today the number is closer to 69%. And while I remember the warnings about trusting content you read on the Internet, I also remember learning how to try and evaluate sources, how to identify trusted content and context, and how to source and cross-check information. Search engines made me a better researcher and writer by speeding up my time to understand a topic while helping me think critically through it.
Generative AI such as ChatGPT has a limited range of knowledge based on what it has been trained on, however, it is improving exponentially. When this technology is mainstream, it will force us all to be better editors, by making us focus on both how we ask the question of the computer, and how we edit the computer’s response to convey our point. But the fear of this technology is also not new.
Plato was fearful of writing, as the advent of the written word removed the need to exercise our memory ( Plato’s Argument Against Writing — Farnam Street).
Going forward, we will be trained even further to ask questions of the computer and take its help in achieving our goals. We are no longer originating, but instead editing, revising, and refocusing.
We are entering a new era, an era of humanumation, where humans will use technology such as generative AI to automate a task or activity that would normally take days to create, while providing a high-fidelity result in a matter of minutes. And this output provides the input for a human-led decision which leads to a faster time to learn if what you are doing has value.
Humanumation is about exploration, not optimization. Its etymology is tied to the fusing of the word human and the word automation. The tools we now have access to can terraform worlds and high-fidelity prototypes that allow us to deliver a n=1 to an audience of 1 that provides the experience of a finished product, consistently.
If you want to optimize something, automate it. If you want to speed up your time of learning and exploration, use technology to ask the right questions and prototype the best experiences. Humanumate it.
This is a moment of profound opportunity and potential, but also a moment of great responsibility. The stakes are high, and it is important to remember to not let the fidelity of these technologies nor their immaturity deceive us.
The use of generative AI such as ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize the way we create, communicate and think. It is a new concept of humanumation, where the technology is used to augment human abilities and not replace them. The power of generative AI lies in its ability to create original content without the need for human creators, allowing us to focus on being better editors. The key connection between this technology and the ancient tradition of seeking divine insight is the notion that the quality of our outputs is directly related to our abilities to craft the questions properly. The more we learn to ask the right questions, the better the responses will be. The future of generative AI is exciting, as it will allow us to achieve our goals faster and more efficiently, but it is also important to remember to keep our own critical thinking and creativity at the forefront. By embracing this new technology, making it accessible to everyone globally, and using it to augment our abilities, we could improve access to knowledge, insights, and quality of life. I’m hopeful for the ghost in the machine.
