Intuition in the Age of AI
Just a few years ago, most people had never directly engaged with an AI system. Suddenly, we began carrying powerful reasoning engines in our pockets. Since late 2022, large-language and multimodal models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Mistral evolved from experimental chatbots into versatile partners. They assist us in drafting policy memos, interpreting images, writing and debugging code, designing molecules, and reasoning across various fields.
Each week showcases demonstrations that challenge our understanding of intelligence and reveal new capabilities of these systems. The striking aspect is not only the power of these technologies but how rapidly they have shifted the boundary between human and machine thought.
As computing power and AI grow exponentially, so does the scope of what can be represented, modeled, or optimized. This expansion also highlights a different kind of intelligence: intuition. Intuition represents a mode of knowing that combines pattern recognition, context, and a sense of understanding before it can be articulated in code or language.
“It is not knowledge of facts so much as sensitivity to structure in the way recognition precedes explanation.”
This reveals a new perspective on intelligence, emphasizing the importance of intuitive insight alongside logical reasoning.
Author's Summary
The rapid advance of AI reshapes intelligence by revealing intuition as a vital, pre-verbal mode of understanding alongside computational reasoning.