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How (Specifically) AI Will 100x Human Creativity and Output
AI will solve the problems we have, not the problems we think we have
Daniel Miessler
February 01, 2024
The real problems are under the water. Click for full-size.
I just realized something. The reason many people are skeptical of AI’s potential is because they’re confused about what limits human capability.
Many think we can’t accomplish more because we’re not creative enough, or smart enough, or we lack the motivation and follow-through.
But our problem is actually execution. We can capture this execution problem in two main ways.
A Scale problem
A Barrier to entry problem
I put a bunch of examples of these in the chart above.
Scale issues
Scale issues are where the task is pretty easy when limited in size and scope. Like researching two competitors to see what their products and strategies are when you have someone dedicated to it for a few days.
Or Like watching a tiny area in space to make sure it doesn’t have any Earth-busting asteroids. No problem. We pool together our telescopes and take shifts with people watching the images.
We need tens of billions more eyes and hands.
The problem we have, though, is that the sky is humungous, and there aren’t nearly enough telescopes or astronomers to watch them. Plus, humans have lives and need to sleep.
Multiple examples of real vs. false problems. Click for full-size.
Too many logs
Same with watching logs and alerts in cybersecurity. If you had one server, and a 3-person security team, you can take shifts, set up some basic automation, and you’ll have it covered.
But at a large corporation, you could be producing terabytes of data per day that needs to be looked at. How does your 40-person team stack against terabytes of logs per day? Especially when they all have other jobs.
We don’t need 1,000 more Einsteins.
We need a hundred billion more interns.
It’s the same with other real examples.
People tend to think criminals get away because they outsmart the authorities. It’s not generally true. Criminals leave trails all over the place, but the team responsible for tracking them down is often just one guy.
His name is Jimmy. He’s got high blood pressure, a limp due to a bad right ankle, is going through a divorce, and just got a Corgi. Plus he’s got 19 other cases on his desk.
Finding the criminal isn’t hard, but it’s impossible. There are trails to be followed and clues to be had, but there’s simply nobody to do the work.