I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about AI, and it occurs to me that very few people have any idea what they’re talking about. Myself included, mind you.

Nobody Knows

Just consider, people keep saying that they don’t…rather, can’t…know what is really happening inside of an LLM for it to reach the conclusions it does. They have some idea, sure, but I keep hearing about this “black box” phenomenon in the process of processing answers to your prompts.

Then you have folks saying that AI is going to lead to everyone’s job being redundant. Others say the situation is the opposite, more jobs than ever. And some conjecture a new world of prosperity and peace because AI will handle all of the stuff we humans don’t want to do.

Next you get into the fear of the singularity and how we will all be in a bad remake of The Terminator with no hero to save us. Or not. AI will never actually get to that level of intelligence.

No one agrees because no one knows. This stuff is way too new for us to have any sort of handle on it.

So just where does that leave us?

 Sound Familiar?

Well, as I already mentioned, I don’t know anything, but I will say that things look a lot like when personal computers replaced (for the most part) typewriters, digital cameras replaced (for the most part) film and music synthesizers replaced orchestras (a little.) Yes, the job market shifted significantly, but new jobs opened up.

The really cool thing is that learning to use AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek, etc. turns out to be a whole lot easier than any of the aforementioned changes due to technology. 

Okay, taking a picture on your smart phone is easier than all that’s involved with a film camera, but stay with me here.

People > Machines

And as far as I can see, people are smarter than computers. Not faster, not more organized, and not with better memories, but smarter. 

What you have naturally is experience, strategies and creativity built in, and that gets stronger every day just by the process of being alive and letting you brain keep working. 

Now the LLMs have sucked up a few million metric tons of content, but it’s all either come from our brains or has been a product of mixing and matching that content to create something “new”. We have an amazing opportunity to use that speedy source of information and organization to boost the results we get from sitting in our easy chairs pondering our next moves. Now we can chat with the bot and make it rework ideas, thoughts, and concepts, helping us to reach higher and more effectively than ever before.

If we use it correctly. And we can.

What will you do with it?

So no, I don’t know what the future holds. But I do know this:
Waiting until everything is figured out means missing the chance to shape what’s coming.

We don’t need to be experts. We just need to be in the game.
Asking better questions. Trying things. Seeing what sticks.

The tools are here. The door’s open.
Now it’s on us to decide what we’re going to do with them.

Curious where to start? Already experimenting? Let’s compare notes.

Drop a comment—or just share one insight or question you’ve had along the way.