The Artificiality Imagining Summit 2024 gathered an (oversold!) group of creatives and innovators to imaging a hopeful future with AI. Tickets for our 2025 Summit will be on sale soon!
This week we dive into learning in the intimacy economy as well as the future of personhood with Jamie Boyle. Plus: read about Steve Sloman's upcoming presentation at the Imagining Summit and Helen's Book of the Week.
Explore the shift from the attention economy to the intimacy economy, where AI personalizes learning experiences based on deeper human connections and trust.
A conversation with UC Santa Barbara Assistant Professor Matt Beane about his book "The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines."
We're excited to welcome to the podcast Matt Beane, Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara and the author of the book "The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines."
Listen on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Matt’s research investigates how AI is changing the traditional apprenticeship model, creating a tension between short-term performance gains and long-term skill development. His work has particularly focused on the relationship between junior and senior surgeons in the operating theater. As he told us, "In robotic surgery, I was seeing that the way technology was being handled in the operating room was assassinating this relationship." He observed that junior surgeons now often just set up the robot and watch the senior surgeon operate for hours, epitomizing a broader trend where AI and advanced technologies are reshaping how we transfer skills from experts to novices.
In "The Skill Code," Matt argues that three key elements are essential for developing expertise: challenge, complexity, and connection. He points out that real learning often involves discomfort, saying, "Everyone intuitively knows when you really learned something in your life. It was not exactly a pleasant experience, right?"
Matt's research shows that while AI can significantly boost productivity, it may be undermining critical aspects of skill development. He warns that the traditional model of "See one, do one, teach one" is becoming "See one, and if-you're-lucky do one, and not-on-your-life teach one." In our conversation, we explore these insights and discuss how we might preserve human ability in an age of intelligent machines.
Let’s dive into our conversation with Matt Beane on the future of human skill in an AI-driven world.
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Thanks to Jonathan Coulton for our music
The Artificiality Weekend Briefing: About AI, Not Written by AI
