Progression

THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS 100% HUMAN-SOURCED.

TLDR: Those images I made are just parody ads of a near future where we could have an AI that sees and hears the same as us, and has enough context of our lives to decide what we do and how, in every situation.

We could end up in a spot where all we do is select 'Proceed'.

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Today I was listening to the futurist Sinead Bovell, who was warning us about how we're increasingly outsourcing our thinking to AI.

We give it information and we ask it to digest it for us.

It even suggests what to do next.

So I thought, what if that trend keeps accelerating?

And I realized we're not far away from some glasses that see and hear the same as us, with an AI that has enough context about our lives, enough to easily decide what's the best task to prioritize next, and precisely how to do it.

Then it could render text on the lenses so we can follow the instructions.

Not necessarily glasses. It could also be a pendant necklace.

When I was thinking about it, I gave it a name. The "Overseer".

Definition of the word 'overseer':

An overseer is a person or organization responsible for supervising, directing, or managing others to ensure a job is done correctly. The term typically applies to workplace managers, project leaders, or authorities responsible for ensuring that systems, processes, or employees operate properly

What happens if everyone else is using an Overseer?

They decide faster and better than you.

They have less mental fatigue, they make fewer mistakes, and get better outcomes.

An Oveseer could tell tell you what to do, or provide multiple choices. Like:

a) Safest. Most logical path with less risk.

b) Low-risk, educated bet.

c) High-risk, high-reward.

Everything could be a conversation that discusses and simulates many outcomes.

Or you could flow in autopilot. Barely looking at the reasoning, and selecting 'Proceed'.

Do we need AGI for this?

For many of our tasks, I don't think so. If we give a current AI enough context about the problem to solve, it can consider all the variables, simulate many paths and prioritize strategies.

LLMs already have enough common sense for that.

If we ignore hallucinations, the weakest point would be a lack of context. Variables that weren't considered.

But the reality is that our daily problems arent that easy to track. They're not math equations with a clear start and (verifiable) end.

The problems we encounter often require waiting, followups, adjustments, multi-tasking.

Success and failure can be subjective.

So AIs today wouldn't be able to manage all of our tasks without a higher level system that orchestrates everything, remembers and learns.

Would an Overseer make us dumber?

Yeah, "absolutely".

But maybe it would also free mental capacity that we can use to come up with more ambitious goals.

We could look at everything from above, leaving the minutia of calculating and simulating to the AI.

It would be a middle ground, until we have no choice other than integrating with an exo-cortex, as some prominent figures predict.

What do you think?

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ps, here are some extra phrases for the parody ads (most generated by AI):

Free yourself from the burden of cognition.

You are the bottleneck.

We calculate. You execute.

The End of Guilt. The End of Doubt.

Emotions are expensive.

Every variable. Every outcome. We got this.

Everyone else is optimizing. Are you still thinking for yourself?

Live. We'll decide.

You're still in control. Technically.

Wear intelligence.

Your cortex wasn't designed for the modern world.

Think with silicon, not with meat.

Think Less. Achieve More.