I think too much sci-fi has us stuck speaking with the wrong verb tense when we talk about technology's impact on work, education, etc. In casual conversation it's future or conditional, when it should be present tense.
We also skip the current history, where humans and machines work together to solve (or worsen) problems.
People are already using AI tools to augment their intelligence. They aren't plugged in directly, but they have the know-how to turn these tools from a simple chatbot into reliable thought partners and workhorses.
The old digital divide was about access. Who had a computer, who had internet. This growing knowledge canyon is harder to see, because two people can have the same tab open and be doing entirely different things with it. Similar to K-shaped recovery in economics. Same starting point, two branches, and the distance keeps growing.
...so, how do we stay informed and maintain domain expertise as that gap widens?
Here's one place to start this week. Use the coworker feature of whatever LLM you currently use (Claude Cowork, ChatGPT Work, Copilot Cowork). Give it the outcome you want and an example instead of just a question, and let it work. If you aren't happy with the results, try to figure out how you can provide more context and better examples. You'll start to shift from seeing it as an inconsistent intern to a colleague you can actually assign real work to.
You still set goals and verify its results. Human in the lead, not just kept in the loop.
