Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for Thought
Advait Sarkar, University of Cambridge, Microsoft
Thursday 10th July 2025. 13:00-14:00. The Buncar.
Many AI tools focus on solving specific tasks like content generation or process automation. Though useful and powerful, these systems may affect how we think, learn, build skills, and develop expertise. We imagine how AI might help people to think better, so that: As well as getting the job done, it helps us better understand the job. As well as creating content, it helps us think more critically and with more insight. As well as seeking efficiency, it helps us create outcomes that are of higher quality because they are the product of better answers from better questions. As well as augmenting individual tasks, it augments collective workflows. As well as automating known processes, it helps organisations explore the unknown. I will share principles for supporting cognition in any user experience, as well as new technologies that show what it means to support better thinking through AI.
Speaker Bio
Advait Sarkar is a researcher at Microsoft, and lecturer at the University of Cambridge and University College London. He studies the effects of Generative AI on knowledge work, productivity, and creativity. He leads a research agenda aimed at enhancing critical thinking with Generative AI in Microsoft's Tools for Thought group. His article “AI Should Challenge, Not Obey” was the cover story in the October 2024 issue of Communications of the ACM.