Economics of Data Abundance: How to sail the 4 C's

You’ve probably noticed that going from coal to chips to internet to AI is a continuous journey of increased abstraction and that’s not great for creatures like us who have mostly evolved for millions of years to identify ‘hard issues’ like ripe fruit and unexpected incisors in the grabbing area.

But like it or not data is the new coal. It was the abundance of coal that fuelled the Industrial Revolution, and the economics of its abundance was at the heart of all the transformations it brought.

In our own age the microchip revolution drove the marginal cost of data computation to near-zero levels. The advent of the internet did the same for data distribution. Now, the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence is poised to reduce the marginal cost of data creation and creativity to near-zero.

And like coal, the microchip, and the internet before it, it looks like what it will not be doing is produce the logically expected outcome of a reduction in use due to a rise in efficiency

This phenomenon, known as Jevon’s Paradox, is named after William Stanley Jevon who noticed that increases in energy production efficiency lead to more, not less, consumption - in other words as technological improvements increase the efficiency of the resource used, the rate of consumption of that resource may actually rise instead of fall.

This paradox serves as the catalyst for this paradigm shift where AI and the resulting data-driven insights and creativity is rapidly redefining all and every kind of parameter; operational efficiency, branding marketing, strategy, decision-making etc. The list of things that involve human thinking that aren’t being impacted by AI is shrinking by the day.

But how can we navigate with confidence amidst these new vast unexplored oceans of knowledge?

Sailing the 4 C’s

My assessment is that there are broadly 4 principles ways of viewing and utilising AI and if you remain bounded to it as acting as one or more of the following you can retain a sense of control over whatever it is doing.

Creative Assistant

Accepting that AI can serves as a catalyst for all forms of creativity. From automating routine tasks to generating startling philosophic insights, suggesting recipes and exploring plotlines the limitations are bounded only by the creativity you have in dreaming them up.

The major problems seems to be the difficulty in leaning into it in the first place but once you do you soon realise how useful it is as as a genuine practical asset for creative problem-solving.

Or In the realm of personal development and hobbies Whether it's helping you learn a new instrument through smart tutorials or suggesting new recipes based on your dietary preferences, AI can inspire and facilitate creative endeavours. It's not just about doing things faster; it's about expanding horizons and enabling you to try stuff you never thought you’d have the resources to try

Consultant & Coach

Look upon AI as a useful consultant, one who offers real-time insights, advice guidance and useful actionable recommendations. Unlike traditional consultancy AI is continuous, tireless and you don’t have to sell your soul to pay for its day rates

Or, think of it as having a life coach available 24/7, offering real-time advice on everything from relationship issues to personal finance. AI can serve this role too, providing insights based on data you might not even be aware you're generating. It can help you make more informed decisions, offering guidance when you're unsure what step to take next in pretty much every aspect of your life

Co-Pilot

AI actively acts as a willing eager (sometimes too eager) co-pilot and general factotum in every kind of task across the board.

It’s another case of have to learn to lean into its at first quite startling capacity offering optimised courses of action.

Like all good pilots you have to keep at least one finger on the tiller, it’s when you let Ai do all the work that you’ll start to run into issues and problems - hence co-pilot not Pilot

Correcting

The Path of Persistent Iteration

For me this is the big one. One of the biggest shifts I’ve seen is this. We have become completely used to only launching "perfected" product or service that are then rigid and difficult to amend. "Correcting" seems to be replacing "Correctness," with a shift to emphasising a mindset of persistent iteration.

With the agility and computational power of AI, companies and people can continuously "trim-tab" (. For the uninitiated, "trim-tabbing" refers to making small adjustments to a larger system, much like a trim tab on a ship's rudder makes it easier to steer the entire vessel" AI allows for real-time refinements and data-driven optimisations so you can adjust and ‘course correct’ as needs be.

This is one of the things I think business and society in general is going to be most resistant and find most difficult to adjust to as it requires a philosophic and reality altering step change

We are very very used to most things broadly persisting in the same form over time (well we think we do, we just don’t examine things hard enough to see the ‘flux in everything and everything in flux’ that Buddhist are always going on about) but AI seems to have little or no problem adjusting ‘reality’ ad hoc. This amorphous/ morphing can be observed in trends in creative digital imagery and art - amazing but still fixed images were all the rage until about three weeks ago, now movement is increasingly being incorporated simply because AI can.

From my own perspective I’ll be turning this blog post into a video as soon as I’ve published it - again because AI lets me do so with relative ease, now I don’t think my efforts will have Kubrick seeking sanctuary in the Overlook anytime soon but still I’m able to create in ways that were economically and technically impossible just a few years ago and I get to edit and iterate as I go.

Conclusion

(This is not a 5th C, I just can’t think of another suitable title)

So we have to accept landscape is shifting before our eyes, driven by the near-zero marginal costs of data computation, distribution, and now creativity. To navigate these unchartered waters, embrace the 4C's—Creative Assistant, Consultant, Co-Pilot, & Correcting and bon voyage.