External signal·One Useful Thing·Ethan Mollick·8 min read
Co-Existence and the End of Co-Intelligence
Summary
Ethan Mollick marks a shift from the 'Co-Intelligence' era, where humans used AI as a thinking partner, to a 'Co-Existence' era in which AIs increasingly act on their own and mediate what humans see, including reading his work and deciding whether to recommend it to their users. He recounts experimenting with hidden-text instructions to influence how AIs described his writing, noting the techniques no longer work and now feel exploitative. He describes using AI throughout his book-writing process, having AI readers review chapters and fact-check. The piece ties back to his concept of the jagged frontier, where AI exceeds humans on some tasks and fails badly on others, arguing that uneven capability is where outcomes will be decided.
Predictions for the future of work
Mollick predicts a near-term shift in which AI agents become active intermediaries that read, evaluate, and gate information for humans, changing how work and attention are distributed rather than simply augmenting individual users. He argues the jagged frontier of uneven AI capability means most jobs will mix tasks AI does better and tasks humans do better, so the advantage goes to workers who learn to navigate that uneven terrain rather than to wholesale replacement. The emphasis is on human skill in orchestrating AI across volatile capability boundaries.
Originally published by One Useful Thing
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