One Useful Thing

Ethan Mollick · One Useful Thing

Getting the answer is different from learning

Mollick argues that AI can support learning when it guides the learner through the work. An assistant that simply supplies answers can remove the practice that builds understanding, even when the user has good intentions.

Ethan Mollick · One Useful Thing

Use the overhang with knowledge, taste, and agency

Mollick says people should stop treating capability as only a future problem. He says current models already do weeks of guided work, and the human role that still matters is deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste, and agency.

Current models already leave an overhang of unused work

Ethan Mollick argues that GPT-6 Astra and Fable 5.1 already do long stretches of guided work, and that the useful human edge is deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste, and agency. The demos are his own projects, not a measured labor study.

An early look at working with a Mythos-class model

Ethan Mollick describes early access to Claude 5 Fable, says it outperformed other public models he had used, and says he tested it on work other than the software-security uses dominating the discussion.

Mollick says the shape of AI is clearer than it was in 2023

Ethan Mollick revisits his 2023 essay, The Shape of the Shadow of the Thing, and argues that AI's direction is becoming easier to discern through current tools.

One Useful Thing

Connect evolving AI use to work, learning and practical choices people face.