How to unleash the power of AI, with Ethan Mollick

This is a must-listen for anyone who’s even remotely interested in implementing AI in their work and organisation.

Ethan Mollick is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation, entrepreneurship, and AI’s impact on work and education. I think of him as Jacques Cousteau of deep divers into the world of AI chatbots — he has gone deeper in his experiments with tools like ChatGPT than most people. His upcoming book Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI (out on 2 April) is a detailed playbook for using AI in work and everyday life.

Here’s what you’ll learn in our conversation:

- Ethan and I share how we use ChatGPT and other tools in our work — and simple practices to achieve better results in your day-to-day use,

- What is the observed impact of AI in work, as studied by Ethan and his colleagues, and published in their 2023 study Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier (see EV441)

- How businesses and individuals can develop strategies for harnessing the power of AI.

- How to maintain the balance between exploration and exploitation as you implement AI in your organisation — and how to prepare for the unknown future.

Where to find Ethan:

Where to find Azeem:

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
03:01 Centaur vs. Cyborg approaches to AI
04:22 Being polite to AI & setting the context
11:23 Ethan's students create GPTs to automate their jobs
19:05 The jagged frontier of AI
23:59 What should the kids be learning in the age of AI?
28:55 How to set yourself up for success with generative AI
38:49 Anthropomorphising LLMs and their personas
42:33 Factuality and hallucinations
44:36 AI's impact on entrepreneurship
48:39 Emerging characteristics
50:17 What happens if jobs become obsolete?
56:13 How should organisations balance exploitation vs exploration
01:02:24 How to implement AI in your work if you're busy?
01:03:25 What if it works out really well for us?

[duane]

Really great discussion, but the sound of breathing is pretty loud and distracting

[stevedemoss]

Great interview, thanks for this. Very rare to find Mollick interviews and he’s such a voice of reason with so much experience and perspective to share.

[GungaLaGunga]

It certainly has raised my mind in ways i never thought I was capable of understanding. Or even better, things I simply wasn't aware of.

[GungaLaGunga]

Thank you for having this conversation. At least I'm not crazy. This is real.

[instituteofaistudies]

Two of my heroes on screen at the same time! ❤

[GungaLaGunga]

I find watching law and crime detective interviews gives me some ideas how to get info out of this thing. I'm amazed and horrified that this thing is in the hands of any human. The opportunity for snafu is emense. The disruption over the next few years, hard to comprehend. The velocity of it. I can't keep up.

[susanan]

I can’t focus on the discussion because of the distracting breathing type noise in the background

[dooganboi]

Had to abandon 20mins in! Audio is so rough, so many sudden cuts, heavy breathing while other speaker talking etc

[PeterHartree]

A lot of breath noise in Azeem's audio...