machines are trying to be more human, but are we?

Apple Maps has tried to make its guidance feel more natural, in part by using common, human-sounding phrases. For example: “Go past the light and make a left.” This language is intended to replace now-familiar and robotic phrasings such as In 300 yards, turn left . Google Maps is also trying not to be so tortuous or wordy.

Overtime we’ve begun to treat this nuance and ambiguity as friction and something to program out. Computers don’t like it. Algorithms can’t categorize it. So we remove it.

Yet we so desperately need this “in between” and neither “yes” nor “no” thinking.

This leap from pre-trained instinctual responses (”System 1”) to deeper, deliberate reasoning (“System 2”) is the next frontier for AI. It’s not enough for models to simply know things—they need to pause, evaluate and reason through decisions in real time.

Do the dichotomies of reason vs. feeling, objectivity vs. subjectivity, man vs. machine, and physics vs. metaphysics still make sense?

MK: This is the computer-thinking speaking. These are binaries . 0’s and 1’s are for computers, and arguably should only be for computers.

I thoroughly believe, alongside thinkers like Douglas Rushkoff, that we must ... See more

Great software products aren’t simply a collection of buttons, icons, and menus. They shape how we think and who we aspire to be.

The problem isn’t that machines are becoming more human-like, it’s that humans are becoming more machine-like in an effort to keep up.

There are no shortcuts to hard-won insight.

No one does this in a snap.

But it’s hard to ... See more

“Look, we’re all humans here—let’s just talk to each other plainly,” said Mark Weinstein, chief marketing officer of Hilton