Is Critical Thinking A Superpower In The AI Era?

AI, particularly generative AI, is having an immediate and dramatic impact on our lives, both personally and professionally. AI enables everyone to become better writers, content creators, coders, and artists. Interestingly, to derive effective value from AI systems, we must also develop our “soft skills”, of which critical thinking becomes one of the most important.

Just a few years ago, to get real benefit from AI, you needed to build and train AI systems which required “hard” skills such as math, programming, or data engineering skills. Now, because of generative AI, you no longer need to be an expert in statistics & probability, calculus, or linear algebra to get value from using Generative AI. You also don’t need knowledge of different algorithms & modeling skills. Instead, you need to use soft skills such as communication, curiosity, problem solving, adaptability, and critical thinking.

Why Critical Thinking is Crucial for AI

There’s no doubt that in today’s fast-paced business environment, workers will need to use AI tools to stay ahead in the market. While AI systems will let anyone get a basic grasp of hard skills, the soft skills are proving to be the most important to get value from AI systems. In particular, the soft skill of critical thinking is proving indispensable. Put simply, critical thinking is the ability to get a solid, reliable, and as truthful as possible understanding of information, and then use that understanding to make sound decisions based on that knowledge. This means scrutinizing information, questioning assumptions, and ensuring that conclusions are supported by solid evidence.

When it comes to using generative AI systems, being able to observe, analyze, discern, and ask the right questions is what not only allows you to get the required results from the AI, but also to determine if the outputs are credible, lack bias, and truthful. Critical thinking approaches provide the necessary mental tools to iteratively refine prompts and hone in to get more effective results. Trying different approaches using thinking skills leads to clearer, more accurate results. The ability to analyze complex requirements helps in designing effective prompts and assessing the quality of AI-generated responses.

How To Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking skills will only become more important in our AI-driven organizations. This means that people of all ages will need to make sure to develop and use critical thinking skills to be able to stay ahead of the pack. A key approach to develop and refine critical thinking skills is to always approach interactions with AI systems with a healthy dose of skepticism, and question assumptions, especially your own. Ask yourself whether the information going into and out of AI systems make sense and what assumptions are being made. Look for evidence to support or refute these assumptions.

Additionally, you’ll want to seek evidence. It goes without saying that especially in an AI-generated world, you can’t take what you see, hear, or read at face value. Large language models are known to hallucinate, or confidently provide you with the wrong information. Verify the sources of your information and ensure that your conclusions are backed by solid proof, research, or findings, and dive deeper to find supporting evidence.

Critical thinking also requires you to be aware of potential informational and data biases. Those biases could be represented in your thinking, data, analyses, outputs of LLM systems, or the way in which you utilize or scrutinize AI outputs. Work to observe and identify patterns and trends in data. This involves not just looking at the data, but understanding the context and relationships between different variables.

Key Benefits Of Critical Thinking in an AI-Centric World

As you continue to work on your critical thinking skills, you’ll see many key benefits, especially as more people make use of AI to augment or assist their work. Professionals are often required to make decisions based on various data points and pieces of information. Critical thinking enables you to sift through the mountains of AI-generated information, identify what is relevant, and then make decisions based on accurate interpretations. This is especially the case with generative AI. Without critical thinking, there is a risk of making decisions based on incomplete or incorrect information, which can lead to erroneous, suboptimal, or misleading results.

A key to critical thinking is problem solving skills. Critical thinking helps professionals approach problems systematically, considering all possible solutions and their implications before making decisions. This thorough approach reduces the likelihood of overlooking important factors and increases the chances of finding effective solutions. It also helps you become a better prompt engineer as you’ll not stop until you get a satisfactory response. You are able to evaluate complex situations to make informed decisions. This analytical ability helps in designing effective prompts and assessing the quality of AI-generated responses.

Setting Yourself Apart With Critical Thinking

Individuals who excel in critical thinking will stand out when it comes to the use of AI. These individuals can navigate complex information landscapes, create better results and responses from LLMs, make better informed decisions, iterate more effectively to get desired outcomes, and be more effective when it comes to communicating and sharing results.

The ability to critically evaluate and interpret information is a strategic advantage for those who are working with AI systems. As AI becomes an increasing part of our every day business processes, tools, and interactions, those with strong critical thinking abilities will be better equipped to harness AI’s full potential, driving innovation, better insights, and answers.