I mean everyone has an opinion when it comes to AI but no one actually knows. Not really. As AI computers grow increasingly powerful there are lots of claims and counter claims. “It is making us stupid“. “No, it isn’t.” “It’s killing jobs”. “No, it isn’t.” “It’s making us lazy” “Not exactly.” And you can do this with pretty much every aspect of AI. So as Cal Newport says, ‘No One Knows Anything About AI.’

Newport recommends remembering 3 things about AI amidst all the hullaballoo.

1. Tune out both the most heated and the most dismissive rhetoric.
2. Focus on tangible changes in areas that you care about that really do seem connected to AI—read widely and ask people you trust about what they’re seeing.
3. Beyond that, however, follow AI news with a large grain of salt. All of this is too new for anyone to really understand what they’re saying.

AI is important. But we don’t yet fully know why.

But more than ever we need to get our heads around technology, work out what it is and have community principles for engaging with it (here are 9 books to get you started).