This week is the second edition exploring Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
Today, we look at using AI to brute force our way into more creative insights…
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
🎯 The Idea In a Nutshell:
AI systems are exceptionally good at generating a massive volume of ideas.
Skeptics are quick to point out how bland many of these ideas are.
But this view misses a key point; creativity research shows us that quantity is a quality of its own.
With thoughtful prompting and a discerning eye, we can leverage AI’s prolific output to fuel more creative breakthroughs in less time.
📝 Diving Deeper
Previous technological leaps freed humans from all kinds of manual drudgery. AI is different. It’s targeting a domain we once considered uniquely human: creativity.
“Not so fast,” the purists say. “AI is not creating anything new. It’s just regurgitating its training data.” They’ll point to AI-generated slop and (rightfully) call out how bland, repetitive, and uninspired most of it is.
They’ve got a point. AI’s output is, by definition, derivative. And in the hands of a lazy operator, it will be mediocre at best. But if you let this dissuade you from using it, you’re missing a huge opportunity.
There’s a concept in creativity research known as the equal odds rule. This rule tells us that for any creative endeavor, the number of “hits” is directly proportional to the number of works produced.
Essentially, quantity breeds quality. The equal odds rule implies that to create a great idea, one of the best things we can do is create a lot of ideas. And when it comes to pure volume, humans can’t hold a candle to AI. With relatively little effort, AI can help us brainstorm hundreds of ideas. Product concepts. Marketing angles. Email subject lines. Business idea. The list is endless.
Will most of them suck? Probably. But the broader point is to embrace the noise. The discerning eye will spot the diamonds in the rough. The random ideas that send you off in a direction you wouldn’t have even considered. The connections that would have never occurred to you.
If you’ve ever tried to create anything new, you know that getting started is the hardest part. Use AI to free yourself from the tyranny of the blank page. The results may appear uninspiring on the surface. The key is to embrace the noise, using your unique intuition to find the ideas that actually work.
👉 Why it matters:
The ability to rapidly generate lots of ideas is a key skill for the most creative thinkers.
This has traditionally been a skill only a few possess, and that is difficult to acquire.
AI levels the playing field, giving anyone willing to experiment the ability to generate hundreds of ideas.
With a thoughtful prompting strategy and a discerning eye, this can help generate new concepts and solutions to tricky problems faster than ever.
🤔 Prompts for Reflection
Where in your life could you use help coming up with new insights?
Can you experiment with AI this week to brainstorm ideas?
What could the ability to more rapidly generate creative output mean for your life and career?
Make today impactful.
~Jason