AI and Curiosity
The conversation explored how AI relates to curiosity - as both a tool that can enhance curiosity and a potential threat to developing it.
AI as Crutch vs Mind-Bicycle
Pete Kaminski offered two aphorisms:
"Every tool is a crutch."
"The tool is not the skill; the tool is the crutch until the skill is yours."
This captures the dual nature: tools can weaken muscles or be mind-bicycles that take you farther while building strength.
The Conundrum
Pete noted this is "a thing we've seen over and over with tools" - calculators, spell-checkers, GPS, etc. The question is always whether the tool:
- Atrophies skills we need
- Amplifies capabilities beyond what unaided humans could do
Pete's Experience with AI
Initial Hard Work
"When I tried playing with it, it was actually hard work, I remember. Having to sit down and go, okay, what can I do with it now? What crazy thing could I give it?"
Pete described testing AI with:
- Poetry in three different languages
- Creative writing prompts starting with specific words
- "All kinds of crazy stuff"
"It was not second nature to do that with this new information tool. It was something I had to work through, but I was so curious about it, I worked through it."
Many People Bounce Off
"I see a lot of people bouncing off new technology because of that. Same thing, you know, when people adopted the internet. Same thing when people adopted PCs."
This suggests innate curiosity drives technology adoption for some people, while others need different motivation.
AI's Patience
"And they don't lose patience when you keep rephrasing the question with good reason, I might add ;)"
"The advantage of AIs is that they don't get annoyed when you say they are wrong"
AI allows iterative curiosity without social cost.
Medical Curiosity Enhanced
"I've been doing that too, @Pete Kaminski. With very careful training and prompting. Enormously helpful—not to replace my medical team, but to help me work with them much more effectively."
AI can amplify patient curiosity and agency in healthcare.
Learning to Use AI Well
"Pete+Louise speaking to the importance of people learning how to use AIs well."
This raises a pedagogical question: How do we teach AI literacy in ways that enhance rather than replace curiosity?
What People Actually Use ChatGPT For
Pete Kaminski shared:
"We analyzed 47,000 ChatGPT conversations. Here's what people really use it for." Washington Post article
(Behind paywall, but suggests empirical data on actual usage patterns)
Students and AI
"Students can't be expected to put work on work they don't believe in. That's precisely what AIs are for."
This provocative statement suggests:
- Students may rationally delegate busywork to AI
- This could free them for genuine inquiry
- Or it could atrophy their basic skills
- The question is whether the work has genuine meaning
The ELIZA Effect
"Even the coders who developed the Macintosh psychotherapist still got sucked in to treating it like a person." ELIZA Wikipedia
This highlighted how humans naturally anthropomorphize AI, which can:
- Make interaction feel more curious and exploratory
- Create false sense of understanding
- Blur lines between tool and relationship
European AI Perspectives
Victoria (Spain) noted that mainstream AI has US-centric biases:
"AI always ignores us, Europeans, the middle ground ðŸ˜"
"I can talk from experience, I always have to remind the AI to consider European options in their answers"
She recommended Mistral AI as offering more European perspectives.
"It wouldn't be easy, but it could be done to collect European-centric information to train models. Europe does have a wealth of information going back centuries that would be super valuable. (It would be great to do the same for smaller, older, diverse cultures too, but there's usually much less source material.)"
This raises questions about AI and cultural curiosity - can AI help or hinder cross-cultural understanding?
Historical Parallels
The discussion connected to earlier tool anxieties:
Slide Rules to Calculators
"My dad's physics professor in college: 'Buy a quality slide rule because you'll be using it the remainder of your career'"
Spell-checkers and Writing
"Writing and drawing were the first externalizations of the brain humans practiced, and what enabled our intellectual evolution"
If AI handles writing, what happens to thinking?
Open Questions
- Does AI-assisted inquiry count as curiosity?
- Can you learn to be curious by practicing with patient AI?
- Does AI lower barriers to curiosity for shy or anxious people?
- Or does it atrophy curiosity muscles by making answers too easy?
- How do we teach students to be curious with AI rather than just prompt it?
- Can AI model curiosity in helpful ways?
Relationship to Other Themes
- Tools as Crutches
- Technology Adoption
- Education and Curiosity
- Writing and Thinking
- Essential Knowledge
- Cultural Dimensions of Curiosity
- Medical Curiosity