4. Make machines do the busywork
One of the biggest obstacles to focus is busywork—all the mindless tasks you need to do before you can get back to the work you actually enjoy. “The whole point of building technology is to improve humans lives,” says Greg Brockman, co-founder and CTO at OpenAI. He envisions a world unlocked by near-term AI breakthroughs where machines take on some 80-90% of the work, leaving humans free to pursue even bigger, more creative opportunities.
Greg believes artificial intelligence is at its best when the machine partners with people to help them be more creative, more efficient, or better at achieving their goals. His team’s goal is to ensure that AI benefits all of humanity for the long term, and he sees current advances as being useful tools for taking care of low-level details that don't require the full power of human cognition. “You can think of it as having a human supervisor outsource the job no one wants to do.”
Today's AI advances are already helping amplify human creativity and performance. For example, Greg’s team recently built an AI to play Dota 2, one of the most popular competitive video games in the world. At first, the AI lost to a professional team of humans. But it quickly improved, beating the world champion team. Many humans complained about the AI’s unfamiliar, hyper-aggressive style of play, but they were fascinated by its unconventional approach to the game. That same human team went on to win the world championship again (the first time in Dota 2 history a team has won twice), thanks in part to strategies they learned from the machine.
“It's about working with AI to solve problems humans aren't able to solve by themselves.”
Reclaiming our focus at work
Focus works a bit differently for everyone: some need the right motivation, others like routine, still others would rather rely on robots. Ultimately, however, it’s about getting back to the work that matters. If people can spend more time doing what they love—and less time in a daily grind of distractions—we’ll have taken a small but important step toward a healthier workplace.
Learn more about our first step, Dropbox Spaces