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What if the true AI revolution isn’t about replacing human skills, but about cultivating our Natural Intelligence?
I was slow to hop on the AI train. My skeptical cat personality makes me watch from a distance before I engage with something new. Then I saw the value in asking it to expand on what I wrote, brainstorming name ideas, sketching out compositions. Before I knew it, I was vibe coding and writing website copy with it. I confess I even wrote my mum an email using AI. Sorry mum, but writing about how to clean storage on your phone was not that exciting.
I couldn’t stop smiling at all the time I was saving. But then it hit me: the time I was saving was preventing me from learning. The only skill I developed by using AI this way was… how to write prompts. I would slip into becoming Harry Prompter, and that’s not quite the life I had in mind.
I
Shortcuts
I realised there is a cost to taking AI shortcuts. Actually, costs plural. We need a lot of resources to develop and run artificial intelligence models. I’m talking buildings filled with GPUs and software engineers making 6-figure a year. For now, it is covered by a river of venture money (OpenAI got $40 B-I-L-L-I-O-N-S from big papa SoftBank last year, a whopping record in VC money). None of the AI companies are even close to profitable yet. Even the paid subscriptions are subsidised by all that capital (did I mention the forty billions OpenAI got??). But one day, when the wells of novelty dry, they will need to have a green profit dashboard.
And, to do so, they will charge money. Big money. Those emails you ask ChatGPT to write will have a price tag on them. It’s like when the West outsourced industries to China: once it was cheap labour, now it is not anymore. And we depend on them.
Thinking about this led me to see a lifehack: to use the generous AI-for-free times to build skills in ourselves — skills that, once we have them, no one can charge us money for. If I never learn to write clear emails because AI does it for me, I’ll be paying for every professional email for the rest of my career.
Now, if you’re thinking “fab, but what about the skills I don’t want to develop. Why not simply prompt AI?”, I can agree with you. If it doesn’t connect with your vocation or life purpose, if it doesn’t bring you any joy, by all means hire someone to do it. I prefer humans, but AI is fine too. It’s like getting an aeroplane ticket instead of learning how to pilot one. The cockpit with a thousand buttons is not for everyone.
But ask yourself which skills are core to you, to your character. And when it comes to communication and reasoning — the very skills that define human intelligence — I believe we all benefit from growing stronger, not more dependent.
II
Mentors
Hercules (or Heracles) was a demigod. Talented and strong from birth, killed a snake when he was a baby and all. But he was also reckless, proud, and lazy. He needed a mentor, and so he found Chiron the Centaur. Half human and half something else. A creature invented by human imagination. Couldn’t do any of the physical things Hercules could, but had a broad enough knowledge to guide him. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Humans can make great things, we’re definitely an above average animal. But we’re also collectively reckless in our choices for the future, proud of the things we create (AI included), and lazy enough to delegate tasks to as many machines as possible. What if AI could be our Chiron? Something that sounds human but isn’t quite. A mentor that helps us develop our inherent strengths rather than doing the work for us.
Here’s a practical guide on how I use AI to mentor me to do things better:
- Self-diagnosis:
Instead of asking ChatGPT to write or create an image for you, make at least a first draft, and try to spot yourself what it’s lacking — is it flat? Not your full style? Too long and hard to understand? Then ask your favourite AI genie: help me understand why this article feels confusing; why these lyrics feel unmusical; why is this composition boring? Over time, you will gain the ability to be honest about what you need to improve, and why these gaps happen. - Skill-honing:
I prompt AI to create exercises to improve my shortcomings. I get lost in my writing, my articles wander in every direction except the one I intended. To get it together, I started asking Claude to give me exercises to stay on topic. Find what you need to hone and ask for exercises you can do. - Progress-checking:
Ask it to coach you in doing something that’s hard for you to do alone. I keep all the prompts about a certain skill in the same chat window. This way Claude has context and knows what I’m improving and what needs more work. Over time, I ask it for encouragement and even reassurance. And remember: you’re creating for humans, not algorithms. So always double-check your progress with real people — does this article feel clearer now? Does this song flow better?
III
Hope
As wise as Chiron was, he was unable to do the physical things Hercules could. Like the greek hero, we humans are able to touch and change the physical reality. We are able to read the room, build rockets, paint the feeling of ice melting, care for a pet and a loved one. And, by aeons of natural selection, we are able to make instinctive decisions about today, about the future. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t — we never know. But turns out opposite thumbs and gut feelings are pretty great, after all.
A single human mind will never be able to hold all the structured information the great silicon brain can handle. And surely we need way more time to think.
Yet all that AI knows is but a fraction of all human Natural Intelligence combined. A substantial and impressively compiled fraction, yes. But a slice, nevertheless. All it can say is a remix of a portion of everything that all humans together have grown to know.
You and I have access to the amalgamation of all that knowledge — what a time to be alive! Now it is up to us to choose what in our individual selves needs cultivation, and collaborate with this hypermind to further grow our own.