AI and human potential, visual cognition tools, chatbots for critical thinking, LLMs for poets, and more

📖In this issue

• Visual tools to assist cognition

• Teacher plus AI initiatives

• How a poet uses LLMs

• “Godmother of AI” announces $1bn AI for physical world startup

• SpreadsheetLLM focuses on spreadsheet skills

• Nichol Bradford on AI + human potential, unique perspectives, and technology for mental, emotional, and social health

• Chatbots as critical thinking partners

🤸 In practice

One of the highest-potential applications of AI is to generate visualizations that assist cognition. This week I posted a LinkedIn summary of some of the most interesting tools and a call out to the hive mind for more that has attracted 50 comments.

The most valuable response was from Jerry Michalski, who posted this brief video below that not only takes us through the most inspiring people in the space and their work, but also aptly demonstrates the idea with his incredible Jerry’s Brain network of ideas and references (which I featured in Thriving on Overload).

👩🤖Humans + AI update

AI pioneer announces Teacher + AI education initiative

Andrei Karpathy announces Euraka Labs: “The teacher still designs the course materials, but they are supported, leveraged and scaled with an AI Teaching Assistant who is optimized to help guide the students through them. This Teacher + AI symbiosis could run an entire curriculum of courses on a common platform.“

We are Eureka Labs

How a poet uses LLMs

“It’s crucial that poets recognize AI as an ally rather than an enemy. Why? Because we have this tool available to us, we should accept it and utilize it while simultaneously not compromising our own human voices. …Above all, however, there is one trick I’ve found that has helped me significantly as a poet: asking AI to analyze my drafts.”

Gemini, Please Analyze My Poem

Human travel advisors still have a role

“You wouldn’t think that a super digitally native generation, adept at double-clicking, would opt for third-party arbiters to book travel. …38% of Gen Z and Millennial respondents said they preferred a traditional travel agent over online booking.”.

AI vs. Travel Advisors: When Humans Win

🔥Hot news in AI

• OpenAI launches low-cost high-performance GPT-4o mini - CNET

• “Godmother of AI” Fei Fei Li launches company valued at $1 billion for physical world intelligence - The Verge

• OpenAI publishes “Prover-Verifier” model to improve quality and verifiability of text - OpenAI

• Microsoft publishes SpreadsheetLLM model for working on spreadsheets - VentureBeat 

• OpenAI continues to release quality Sora text-to-video generations, though it is in an already very competitive space

🎙️This week’s podcast episode

What you will learn

• Exploring the role of AI in enhancing human potential

• The concept of the ‘Human MESH’ for mental and emotional health

• Redefining work and human uniqueness in the AI age

• The importance of soft skills and unique perspectives

• Successful AI implementation through human-centered approaches

• Investing in technology for mental health and performance

• Addressing global challenges with advanced AI

💡Resources and insights

Chatbots as critical thinking partners

“The world faces many intricate challenges that require critical thinking and nuanced analysis. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can enhance our critical thinking capacities if used creatively. By interacting with chatbots innovatively, we can sharpen our skills and tackle complex problems more effectively.”

David Gurteen shares 11 examples of prompt engineering techniques for chatbots to assist critical thinking.