Special Seminar: AI and the Dynamics of Human Ability

Join us for a talk by Nisheeth K. Vishnoi, A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of Computer Science at Yale University. This talk is part of the Kempner Seminar Series, a research-level seminar series that covers topics related to the basis of intelligence in natural and artificial systems.

How does AI change the role of human ability in work, and what happens to that ability when AI is used repeatedly? In this talk, I will use two mathematical models to study these questions. As execution becomes easier to delegate, the ability to verify AI’s output becomes more important in determining which workers remain valuable. At the same time, AI creates new choices about delegation and verification, so a worker can rationally benefit from using AI while becoming less valuable to the institution. Over time, reliance on AI also changes what we continue to practice, and hence what we continue to learn. I will show that this feedback can create two stable regimes: one with high reliance and low human skill, and another in which skill is sustained. A sharp boundary separates the two, so small differences early on can lead to very different long-run outcomes. Together, these results reveal a tension: AI can make some abilities more valuable even as repeated AI use changes the practice through which human abilities are sustained.

Coffee and cookies will be served in the atrium outside of the meeting room at 2:15 pm.