1. "We are past the event horizon; the takeoff has started. Humanity is close to building digital superintelligence, and at least so far it’s much less weird than it seems like it should be." Sam Altman has once again published an article on his personal blog. It is nothing less than a glimpse into the future. Here I summarize the most important quotes:

Wow, WWDC was a big disappointment. Hardly worth mentioning. In a nutshell: The UI will be improved, the OS will be fine-tuned a little, and the iPad will become more like a MacBook. AI? A little live translation, a little visual AI – and that's it. No new Siri (already leaked by Mark Gurman as postponed until 2027), no deeper integration of LLMs such as ChatGPT.

The debate about AI making people dumber is silly and wrong. Here is my explanation. Every day, I have to deal with people who are worried that AI will dumb down “humanity.” Here's why that's totally wrong and doesn't hold water. 1) AI provides us with another tool for generating knowledge. The advantage, and at the same time the difference between AI and tools such as Wikipedia and Google, is that the information sought is now available much more quickly and in a more targeted manner. For decades, humans have been trying to make knowledge more easily accessible. The same discussion about people no longer thinking for themselves arose with the introduction of Wikipedia in the early 2000s. “No one thinks for themselves anymore, everything is just uncritically copied from Wikipedia!” was the concerned outcry at the time; almost exactly the same concerned outrage as with AI. However, Wikipedia and Google did not lead to a dumbing down, but rather expanded the knowledge base for all people. 2) AI does not make us stupid, but enables us to generate specific knowledge. The truly important task of humans in the knowledge process is to critically evaluate, classify, and apply the knowledge generated. Critical thinking is integral and will, in my opinion, remain necessary for a very long time, even if we have AGI and ASI. After all, all knowledge is obtained and generated from data. However, sorting and contextualizing this data and incorporating it into practical applications with critical reflection remains a human task. Teaching critical thinking should be the task of higher education and universities. Contrary to what many believe, it is by no means the task of universities to teach students to memorize dull facts. That has never been the genuine task of knowledge. Rather, it is to critically question knowledge, to understand where knowledge can be generated, and to embed it practically in one's own processes. In short, the claim that AI will dumb people down is a discredit to the task that schools and universities actually have, namely to promote critical thinking. AI cannot take this ability away, provided it has been taught properly beforehand. In this respect, the criticism often directed at AI is misdirected—the dumbing down of people is achieved by schools and universities, insofar as these institutions no longer teach critical thinking but instead enforce rote learning, which, unfortunately, is increasingly common practice based on my university experience. (One example is the Bologna Process in Europe, which turned university studies into a highly orchestrated process; instead of seeing the university as a place of learning where you spend time, it has since become all about rushing through courses as quickly as possible in order to graduate and be available for the job market.) 3) The world and its systems are becoming increasingly complex and specialized - and this has nothing to do with AI! Even today, it is virtually impossible for all people to incorporate all knowledge. I don't know anyone who is a lawyer, doctor, electrical engineer, philosopher, physicist, and gardener all at the same time. Why? Systems have become so complex in human evolution that it is virtually impossible to know everything. Consequently, humanity has long sought to outsource knowledge as complexity has increased. Initially, this was done by “storing” knowledge in books, later by delegating and outsourcing processes to computers, and with the advent of the internet, making it generally available. For a very long time, therefore, knowledge has been something that is outsourced and by no means stored in humans. AI is simply the necessary consequence of this process of making knowledge even more readily available and obtaining even better tailored and concrete answers to complex questions. Consequently, AI does not make people dumber, but smarter, insofar as everyone can get immediate answers to important questions much faster. Anyone who studies law knows that in jurisprudence, it is not important to know all the laws by heart, but to know where to find them in the legal text. “A glance at the law facilitates the finding of justice.” In short, the simplistic claim that AI is dumbing people down is discredited by anthropological reality: more complex world systems lead to the outsourcing of knowledge generation, similar to how calculators expand our mathematical capabilities without turning us all into idiots because we can no longer do mental arithmetic. What most people mean and worry about in their misguided criticism is the lack of critical thinking and reflection. However, this is neither the task nor the fault of AI, but a social process that should be taught in schools and universities. The fact that this is currently happening little or not at all is poor work on the part of the state. This criticism must therefore be addressed properly, because AI does not make us dumber, but smarter and more efficient. P.S. Because it has been written many times that I use AI for my posts: No, I write them myself. But I often write in German and translate the texts with software. However, they are written entirely by me as a human being.