THE FUSE

A thought, a plan, begins forming, and before it is formulated, something else finishes it. I keep running into it, in my work and others': the interval between a partly-formed thought and an AI's optimized response has all but closed. It's easy to click go and harder to say no, to slow down and think for oneself—particularly when the AI is good at it. The question is not only what these systems can do, but what happens in us when we let them do the part of thinking that until recently required staying with a problem long enough for something to form.