Alexis Rondeau

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

‹ All books

Cover of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
Kindle

Ethan Mollick

87 highlights · 7 notes · last read August 2025

Highlights I wrote a note on are shown in full. The other 81 are scrambled: the words are the author's, so here you only see where in the book I underlined something.

Scenario 4: The Machine God

Location 2,436

My note Scenario Four - God AGI

In the fourth scenario, human supremacy ends. The end of human dominance need not be the end of humanity. It may even be a better world for us, but it is no longer a world where humans are at the top, ending a good two-million-year run. Achieving this level of machine intelligence means that AIs, not humans, are in charge.

Location 2,438

My note Dominance != Existence

Rather than being worried about one giant AI apocalypse, we need to worry about the many small catastrophes that AI can bring.

Location 2,456

My note Make sure to worry about the right things - in this case small ways AI could disrupt us.

See Factfulness

AI does not need to be catastrophic. In fact, we can plan for the opposite. J. R. R. Tolkien wrote about exactly this, a situation he termed a eucatastrophe, so common in fairy tales: “the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn’ . . . is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur.” Correctly used, AI can create local eucatastrophes, where previously tedious or useless work becomes productive and empowering. Where students who were left behind can find new paths forward. And where productivity gains lead to growth and innovation.

Location 2,459

My note Eucatastrophe / Anti-fragile black swan event where things are catastrophically BETTER

We can’t wait for decisions to be made for us, and the world is advancing too fast to remain passive. We need to aim for eucatastrophe, lest our inaction makes catastrophe inevitable.

Location 2,467

My note Proactively aim for eucatastrophe

There is a sense of poetic irony in the fact that as we move toward a future characterized by greater technological sophistication, we find ourselves contemplating deeply human questions about identity, purpose, and connection. To that extent, AI is a mirror, reflecting back at us our best and worst qualities. We are going to decide on its implications, and those choices will shape what AI actually does for, and to, humanity.

Location 2,474

My note AI as a mirror

My note AI sermon.

"Based on everything I've writen, please write the ending."