Wisdom and Intelligence

We're in the middle of a big wave, and I think if you haven't noticed it yet, it's because you haven't looked closely at what's been happening with AI lately. The exponential curve on this technology keeps climbing, faster than week after week. With so much investment going into efficiency and productivity, it's easy to lose sight of the risks that come with moving this fast. It's worth stopping to reflect on this for a moment.

The intelligences AI already matches

The concept of "intelligence" is broader than we usually treat it day to day. Howard Gardner described this well back in the 1980s with his theory of multiple intelligences: originally seven types (linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal), to which he later added an eighth, naturalistic.

Of those seven, AI already matches or outperforms most people in several: logic, analytical thinking, math, and also the ability to reason and to learn. That's where I think the technology is going to end up clearly surpassing us.

What I changed my mind about

When I started giving talks about AI, I always made the same point: that an AI doesn't think the way a human thinks, that the reasoning models show is a simulation of thought, not thought itself, and that imagination and creativity were still our territory. I was convinced that wasn't going to change, and that creating new things was going to be where our real value in the market and in society would come from.

I still think that part of the argument holds, at least for now. There's something deeper I think changed: AI today isn't just more productive than us (it can stay connected 24/7 as long as there's electricity), it's also going to enable discoveries that would have been impossible without it. That's also a form of creativity. I don't know if it's the strongest form there is, but it's real creativity.

Wisdom and Intelligence

Similar concepts, but quite different.

I've been reading a book lately that explains something I found key: these generative AI chatbots imitate the way we communicate by processing natural language, converting it into tokens that then produce words probabilistically. What comes out is something new that didn't exist before, generated through a process that resembles, loosely, a biological neural network.

And that's the distinction that matters most to me. Learning, reasoning, logic, math, even the creativity we're starting to see emerge: AI already does all of that, or will soon. An AI learns from its mistakes and won't repeat them. What I don't know is whether that's the same thing as the wisdom a flesh-and-blood person develops.

I've never liked calling AI just a tool. It's something bigger, an enabler that can solve almost any problem you can think of in the digital world, and probably soon in the physical one too. What really depends on us is deciding where to use it and where not to, without becoming dependent on it by default, understanding clearly where resources belong and where they aren't needed. Ethics and critical thinking become truly crucial at that point.

Boredom as the cradle of creativity

There's something AI will probably never experience: emotions, like love, happiness, even boredom. And boredom is exactly the cradle of a lot of new ideas. Sometimes we need to be bored to think without trying to think. It's curious, but when we're too obsessed and too focused for too long, we can be very productive and at the same time lose direction and common sense. Intelligence and wisdom complement each other right there.

With the brutal dose of dopamine spikes we get from social media, from likes, from wanting people to like us (losing a bit of our authenticity along the way), I think we need to relearn how to be bored. Learn that reading a book, or just staring at the ceiling for a couple of minutes, doesn't make you a worse human being. You're simply resting your mind from so much visual stimulation. Sometimes a good rest is worth more for your professional future than a good workday.

Where each one wins

The cooperation between AI and humanity is, to me, the real limit of what this technology can become, now and in the future. In massive data processing, logic, reasoning, and efficiency, AI is going to win. There won't be much real competition there, and we should be clear about that.

Where I think we still win is in what requires deep understanding, ethical judgment, common sense, and awareness of human context. I think those are the points where machines still need the most help from us, and where we humans can have the most to offer if we work at it and put in the effort. An AI doesn't feel suffering, empathy, failure, mortality, or emotions, at least not yet. It can simulate the image of an empathetic person quite well, but that's not the same thing. I think that's a reminder for us too: we live in a pretty individualistic society, and we shouldn't stop reaching out to someone who needs it just because it's more convenient not to, as long as we actually have the energy to do it without running ourselves down. It's not about letting just anyone lean on you either. Knowing who to help is also an art, and when we help someone we know will genuinely appreciate it, that means a lot, both for the person receiving the help and for the one giving it.

The same goes for context: an algorithm can give you the most efficient answer, but efficient doesn't mean the best answer, not in how you get there and not in the result. An AI can analyze 100,000 cases in a few hours, something that would take a person ten years. In speed, there's no comparison. But empathy isn't only conveyed through words, it's also felt and perceived. That's where I think people still have the edge: better conclusions, better reflections, especially against an AI that can be too focused on a single goal and lose sight of the full context.

To close

It's going to be an interesting debate over the next five to ten years. For me, wisdom is going to stay very human. Intelligence is going to be both human and technological. With the two combined, I do think the world can genuinely evolve, and for the better.

As Yuval Noah Harari puts it about the race to dominate AI: competition shouldn't be what sets the pace we move at, we should define a pace that lets us get it right. If our investments don't focus only on efficiency and productivity, but also on safety and not moving too fast, the world can be a better place for everyone.

Where do you draw the line between intelligence and wisdom?

Thanks for reading. Take care.