How (Not If or When) to Become a Human-Robot 'Centaur'
What ChatGPT and other language tools have taught me about melding with AI
In "centaur chess" each human competitor is paired with a computer, so the "player" at the board is a person-machine hybrid — a mental "centaur," as the former world champion Gary Kasparov likes to say.
The human supplies style, creativity and psychological savvy about the (human part of) the opponent. The computer offers faultless recall of prior games in its database and fast calculations about possible future moves. The likeliest winner? Not the centaur with the strongest human or best algorithm, but the one with the best interface between computer and person. Kasparov writes that "weak human + machine + better process" will do better than "strong human + strong machine + inferior process."
As AI spreads out into more and more of 21st century life, Jack Clark proclaimed the other day, "the era of Centaur-Humanity is here." Willing or not, you're now collaborating with "intelligent" machines to get through the day, and that melding process is speedi…