How to Use AI Without Becoming Stupid

This essay will introduce a rule for AI use that should prevent a whole host of bad outcomes. More importantly, the rule is built on top of some smart philosophy, which means it is carefully selected to be invariant — that is, it shouldn’t change until we get to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

This resistance to change is useful! In a world of rapid AI development, building business policy around things that don’t change is worth its weight in gold.

I’ll introduce the rule, explain why it works, and then walk you through the various instantiations of the rule in action. This rule is not unique — only the synthesis is unique. It turns out that sophisticated users of AI have all stumbled onto the rule and actively apply it in their work; this is merely a formulation that is easy to remember and therefore easier to apply.

I’ve named this rule the Vaughn Tan Rule, because I’ve adapted it from some work the consultant, business professor and writer Vaughn Tan has done recently on AI-use. Vaughn is currently shaping these ideas for AI education at various institutions around the world. Needless to say, everything good about these ideas is