Writing

Why Learn Anything If AI Will Do It Tomorrow?

The other day I was with my partner Julia sharing some coffee like we usually do. And in the conversation I was explaining how fast AI is unfolding and where it could take us. Her immediate response was: "This is already happening. My friends don't have a job and cannot find one."

She works in fashion as a designer and spent the last year learning how to design in 3D modeling software. It seemed that was where the industry was going. Her effort was real and she did all the right things to keep up with the wave.

After the conversation something really stayed with me. She said:

"I don't want to feel I'm throwing away time learning a new tool if tomorrow the AI is going to do it."

It is true that AI is already here and it's here to stay. It's already replacing the tools available in the market and it's probably going to be replacing a lot more.

Some people feel hyped, others feel anxious, but behind all that there's a very rational fear of uncertainty about the future. When technology threatens to replace our own essence, the future seems very bleak.

What AI can't take

AI could eat all the other tools but it cannot replace your creative essence.

Tools are just a means of production, a way of doing. The one learning worth the investment is knowing how to direct AI. A tool can create wonderful things but cannot replace the judgment of the operator of what wonderful looks like. So, my answer to Julia's question of why even bother learning a new tool: her years of experience don't depreciate as AI gets better, her taste and judgement for designing something wonderful can now direct the AI. And instead of generic, average, robotic AI responses, Julia's unique vision and perspective will create a story with her own soul imprinted on it.

Without you, AI is just an amnesiac conversation tool which, given a question, gives you the most probable answer. AI without a memory is just another tool, but with your memories it is a transformative force. That is why, as we give more agency to AI in our lives, we must become the agent operator. By that I simply mean: you set the goal, the AI does the tasks, and it saves what it learns in your notes so you never start from zero. We can become humans enhanced by AI agents.

How this looks in a normal life

I'm not theorizing this. I'm living it every day.

I started like everybody else, just step by step. First asking questions and just chatting. Soon after I started to use it at work every day. But eventually there was a eureka moment of realization that you could use AI for most everyday things. If something presented friction in my life, that could be softened with AI. Now I run most aspects of my life with it. From making the list of groceries, from meal planning all the way to adding them to my online supermarket. It knows what yoghurt I like and my favourite recipes. It became my Dutch tutor. And my very own finance advisor.

I ended up building my second brain, a library where I store my ideas, my memories, and what I'm learning. It is something you build piece by piece, day by day. It contains my knowledge collection, which allows me to process more information than ever before and helps me learn faster.

Three futures, one move

Nobody can predict the future but we can try to be prepared for the different scenarios. In the case of AI we can reduce it to three possible ones.

• A. AI is just a new tool. The hype bubble bursts because capability hits a ceiling. AI just does tasks and we all keep our jobs.
• B. AI is like a slow wave. The technology is there and ready way before we are. Society becomes the bottleneck. And we go through a long period in which nothing seems to change, until one day we look back and nothing is the same: AI is everywhere. Like the adoption of the electric motor instead of a steam engine. It took 40 years to build new factories, new job positions.
• C. AI is like a flood and you better be building your own ark. The transformation is here and is not going to wait for anyone before it starts filling every corner. Because for the first time in history the rebuilding is done by the technology itself. The electric engine couldn't redesign the factories. But AI can: it helps write the code that integrates AI, helps train the people who use AI, and increasingly helps build the next AI. Each unit of adoption creates capability that accelerates the next unit.

You cannot tell which one you're in from inside. A and B are indistinguishable for years, and C's early signals don't look like news. They look like a friend who can't find work. Easy to dismiss until it isn't.

In A, learning to direct AI made you sharper with the tool. In B, you spent the quiet years practicing what the wave eventually rewards. In C, you're the operator when operating is the only side of the desk that's necessary. That's why becoming an agent operator and having a second brain is a safe bet. Not because the hype is true, but because it's the move that's right even if the hype is wrong.

I'm currently trying to alleviate Julia's worries by helping her ease into the future of AI. I really want to encourage everybody to look beyond the chat and try the AI tools that can act, not just talk, and start playing with what's possible.

I feel very positive about the future and I hope to keep writing about it. I also wish to help everybody kickstart their own path with a starting kit and some other useful tools I'll be sharing soon.

Your own unique judgment, your memories and experience hold the key to transform AI from just another tool to a life-changing experience.