Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

I got this book, Co-intelligence: Living and Working With AI, when it came out three or four months ago, in electronic format, and finally managed to read it. It’s not very long (256 pages) and definitely not difficult to read. It’s just some thoughts and (semi-latest) research about Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and how it can be used for good (or evil) in the workplace and educational settings.

When I say « semi-latest, » it’s because it was the latest developments and research when Mollick wrote the book, but it always takes a bit of time to publish a book, and things change extremely quickly in this specific field (for example ChatGPT-4o came out about the same time as the book was published, and Strawberry (ChatGPT-o1) came out just a few days ago).

Ethan Mollick was one of the first researchers to write about GenAI when it came out in November 2022. Since then, I’ve read (and shared with colleagues) all his articles and posts and comments everywhere, and I invited his wife (who works with him) to give a talk about GenAI in post-secondary education at my university last winter. It was a really interesting talk.

The book talks about all kinds of positive ways to use GenAI, but the last chapter talks about the four possible futures we’re going to have with artificial intelligence, and that is NOT a happy chapter! In fact, Mollick is quite blunt when he describes the possible rules and regulations that might or might not be put in place, political and financial problems, and societal challenges in the workplace and education we are most likely going to encounter in the near and far future. The interesting part is that he explains well why some experts/researchers/scientists are NOT worried about the future, which was something I used to have a hard time understanding. But I am too much of a realist to be optimistic about our future. Everyone should read this book.