In a new One Useful Thing post, Ethan Mollick names deep and wide knowledge, taste and agency as human advantages over AI. Its AI-generated book promo depicts a possible oversight: asked whether it checked a landing, the AI says it thought the human was doing so.
Mollick calls the gap between AI’s existing capabilities and people’s use or understanding of them a “cognitive overhang.” He says deep knowledge supports intuitive decisions, while wide knowledge helps people recognize approaches an AI may not volunteer unless prompted. Taste helps users choose or reshape outputs; agency means experimenting to discover what AI can do.
The roughly 30-second promo advertises Coexistence, due October 20. Mollick wrote that an LLM produced it in 45 minutes, including voices, music and sound effects. He said the finished video felt more ominous than he wanted and attributed that choice to the AI.
