I’m tired of this phrase and this simple way of thinking about tools. This blog post is a wandering train of thought on the topic of what tools are and why it matters to be even slightly more mature in how we think about them.
AI is not a tool.
"Like all tools, it has its pros and cons. It brings about radical changes, but we'll adapt." This cliché was true for previous technologies. But it isn’t necessarily true for AI. A tool extends the human body or percept...
AI Is a Waste of Time
The newest AI tools are accelerating basic research and scaring the general public. But many people are simply using them as toys.
More Than a Tool
What We Learned from a Year of Conversations About AI
AI is Creating Peak Software, Media is the Best Analogy
Let's learn more about the world's most important manufactured product. Meaningful insight, timely analysis, and an occasional investment idea.
Don't treat surface-level metaphors about AI as if they describe fundamental reality
Debates about whether AI is a “tool” or whether it’s wrong to “anthropomorphize” it often seem confused about what reality is made of
Practical AI tools for your business
These easy-to-use tools can make running your business feel a little lighter. These tips and AI tools are all about helping you to understand your customers better and build real connections with them.
AI experienced through AI co-created tools
AI co-created tools and social spaces as a new medium
Developers say AI coding tools work—and that's precisely what worries them
Ars spoke to several software devs about AI and found enthusiasm tempered by unease.
From Genius Science to Scenius Science - Cosmik Labs
Why personal AI tools might not be all we need to revolutionize science
AI | 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey
84% of respondents are using or planning to use AI tools in their development process, an increase over last year (76%). This year we can see 51% of professional developers use AI tools daily.
AI is An Ideology, Not A Technology
At its core, "artificial intelligence" is a perilous belief that fails to recognize the agency of humans.
Why Tool AIs Want to Be Agent AIs
AIs limited to pure computation (Tool AIs) supporting humans, will be less intelligent, efficient, and economically valuable than more autonomous reinforcement-learning AIs (Agent AIs) who act on their own and meta-learn, because all problems are reinforcement-learning problems.
Our minds aren’t equipped to handle AI
AI is junk food for the mind: easy, tempting and ultimately very bad for you.
How AI Tools Differ from Human Tools
Why the mental models we've built for human interfaces don't work for AI, & how Anthropic's latest guidelines are reshaping tool design for better performance & efficiency.
Unresolved debates about the future of AI
How far the current paradigm can go, AI improving AI, and whether thinking of AI as a tool will keep making sense
