February 13, 2023

Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman, in their book, Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World, offer a three-part framework for understanding how novel things are created. Using three cognitive maneuvers—Breaking, Blending, and Bending—humans continue to produce creative artifacts, solutions, and products, not out of nothing (like an all-powerful deity), but by reconfiguring found materials, tools, and objects into new arrangements and values. 

What happens when a machine breaks, blends, and bends an age-old academic performance task, like composing essays? What happens when intelligent machines, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, start to deterritorialize the landscape of writing into one where humans are writing with machines? As we confront this conundrum, I recommend exploring Kevin Kelly’s framing of our relationship with machines in the age of AI: “Everyone will have access to a personal robot, but simply owning one will not guarantee success. Rather, success will go to those who best optimize the process of working with bots and machines (The Inevitable 58-59).” Later he writes, “This is not a race against machines. If we race against them, we lose. This is a race with the machines. You’ll be paid in the future based on how well…