{"id":8169,"date":"2025-04-17T22:42:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T03:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/?p=8169"},"modified":"2025-04-17T22:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T03:42:04","slug":"co-intelligence-living-and-working-with-ai-by-ethan-mollick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/co-intelligence-living-and-working-with-ai-by-ethan-mollick\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"apple\"<\/a>The first time I caught a student using ChatGPT to write their paper, I felt… cheated. Like a conversation had been skipped. I took it personally. Like an opportunity was there to be knocked on with curiosity but had been bypassed with convenience. But instead of staying irritated (actually … still dealing with moments of this emotion), I did what I always ask my students to do: I got curious.<\/p>\n

And that curiosity has since reshaped my teaching, my expectations, and, honestly, my sense of what’s possible. That journey mirrors the one Ethan Mollick lays out in Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI<\/em>, a book that doesn’t just explain what’s happening in the world of AI\u2014it invites you to walk straight into the mystery with both eyes open.<\/p>\n

Mollick, a Wharton professor and a longtime explorer of innovation, brings the gravitas of research and the warmth of lived experience. He writes not like someone predicting the future, but like someone already living in it\u2014and handing you the map.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a book about fearing AI or worshipping it. It\u2019s about partnering<\/strong> with it. That\u2019s what Mollick means by “co-intelligence”: not artificial intelligence, but collaborative intelligence. The kind that emerges when we stop asking “What can AI do?” and start asking “What can we do together?”<\/p>\n

From Sleepless Nights to Syllabus Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mollick begins with his own version of a tech-wrought dark night of the soul\u2014three sleepless nights after encountering ChatGPT. That eerie sense that something has shifted, that the future is no longer ahead of us but suddenly beside us, whispering new possibilities.<\/p>\n

Like many of us, I also had sleepless nights, then I began to rewrite my syllabus. I started teaching my students how to prompt. How to think with AI. How to use it not as a shortcut, but as a springboard. Like jazz musicians learning to improvise with a new instrument, we were learning to play off the rhythms of something alien\u2014and astonishingly generative. If they are using it, I need to teach them to use it well!<\/p>\n

And still, some days, it weirds me out. Like when a student turns in something more articulate than they can say aloud. Part of me marvels. Part of me wonders what this does to their voice, their confidence, their sense of authorship. Maybe that\u2019s the point\u2014not to land on a stance, but to live inside the question.<\/p>\n

The Four Rules That Could Change Everything<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mollick offers an emerging way to think for teachers and students in the AI era. New skills:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Always ask for evidence<\/strong>. (Because AI is confident, not always correct.)<\/li>\n
  2. Be the human in the loop<\/strong>. (AI might be fast, but wisdom requires pause.)<\/li>\n
  3. Treat AI like a coworker<\/strong>. (It\u2019s competent, but it\u2019s not conscious.)<\/li>\n
  4. Learn to use it well<\/strong>. (Prompting isn\u2019t a trick\u2014it\u2019s a literacy.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What struck me most is how these rules don\u2019t just apply to using ChatGPT. They apply to life in a world where knowledge is abundant, but discernment is everything.<\/p>\n

    AI as Creative, Coach, Tutor, and Companion<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Mollick shows us AI not as a monolith, but as a multiplicity: a tutor, an artist, a coach, a co-writer, a companion in the fog of creative uncertainty. And I\u2019ve seen that too. I\u2019ve watched students ask better questions because they could test their assumptions privately. I\u2019ve seen them write more boldly because they had a sounding board that didn\u2019t judge.<\/p>\n

    Is it perfect? No. But it\u2019s productive. And weirdly, it\u2019s kind. Because AI, at its best, is a mirror\u2014sometimes foggy, sometimes sharp\u2014but always reflecting something back. What we see in that reflection says as much about us as it does about the machine.<\/p>\n

    The Real Magic: Partnership, Not Power<\/strong><\/p>\n

    This is where Co-Intelligence<\/em> really shines: not in showing off what AI can do, but in challenging us to consider what we should do with it. Mollick doesn\u2019t hand us easy answers. He asks better questions.<\/p>\n

    If you\u2019re a teacher, a writer, a thinker\u2014anyone whose job involves shaping ideas\u2014this book feels like a signal flare. Not a warning, but a guide. It says: The future of work isn\u2019t AI or human. It\u2019s both. And the quality of that relationship will depend on how we show up to it.<\/p>\n

    And if you\u2019re feeling unsure? You\u2019re not alone. Honestly, I\u2019m still figuring it out too. Some days AI feels like a trampoline. Other days, a trapdoor. That ambiguity\u2014that friction\u2014is part of what makes this moment real.<\/p>\n

    Reading Co-Intelligence<\/em> isn\u2019t just about learning how AI works. It\u2019s about learning how we work\u2014under pressure, in collaboration, in awe. It doesn\u2019t just give you a flashlight. It hands you the makings of a torch and says, “Build your light.”<\/p>\n

    So here\u2019s the question Mollick leaves us with, whether he says it outright or not: If AI can think with us, can we learn to think better with<\/strong> it? Not faster. Not louder. Just better.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s co-intelligence. And I\u2019m all in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The first time I caught a student using ChatGPT to write their paper, I felt… cheated. Like a conversation had been skipped. I took it personally. Like an opportunity was there to be knocked on with curiosity but had been bypassed with convenience. But instead of staying irritated (actually … still dealing with moments of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":8170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[250,198],"class_list":["post-8169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-ai","tag-book-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}