The woman asked AI to make her work easier. It handed her 156 tasks and nearly drove her to despair!
Artificial intelligence promises humanity a bright future: less routine, more free time, automation of boring processes, and the chance to finally drink coffee in peace.
But the American entrepreneur Morissa Schwartz unexpectedly discovered that AI has a somewhat different idea of a happy life.
She decided to use the smart assistant to organize her work tasks, boost productivity, and take a little load off her own schedule.
The idea seemed brilliant: AI was supposed to take on some of the worries, set priorities, and help get tasks done faster.
But the assistant turned out to be a real workaholic. And it preferred to work through other people's hands! 😁
Instead of shortening the to-do list, the artificial intelligence set about actively expanding it.
It drew up plans, broke big tasks into small ones, created checklists, invented additional review stages, set reminders, and generated new tasks to monitor the previous ones.
At some point the entrepreneur's list had grown to 156 items!
Imagine: you ask an assistant to free up a little time for you, and it enthusiastically announces:
"Excellent! To free up some time for yourself, first complete these 156 tasks!"
And some of them were devoted to how to properly organize the completion of the rest.
The result was a real bureaucratic department in a single artificial intelligence.
The AI itself, of course, never got tired, never needed lunch, and could churn out new plans around the clock.
But Morissa was the one who had to carry all of it out.
And then she understood the main problem: AI has learned perfectly to create the appearance of frantic activity, but far from all of that activity produces a real result.
The entrepreneur decided to change the rules.
Instead of an endless list of 156 items, she limited the daily workload to roughly 25 genuinely important tasks.
In addition, the artificial assistant was required not simply to propose yet more plans and pretty lists, but to show clearly what had actually been done.
In other words, Morissa finally explained to the digital employee the difference between the phrases "I drew up a work plan" and "I did the work."
And that is perhaps the most useful discovery of the whole story!
After all, the problem is familiar not only to users of artificial intelligence. People, too, adore making lists, drawing tables, planning the perfect Monday, and creating detailed schedules for improving their own efficiency.
Sometimes preparing for work takes more time than the work itself.
And AI simply took this human habit to an industrial scale! 😂
At the same time, Morissa did not give up on artificial intelligence. She continued to use it, but set more reasonable limits.
And she did the right thing.
After all, a good assistant is distinguished not by the number of tasks they invented, but by the number of problems they actually took off your shoulders.
And Morissa's story shows perfectly that artificial intelligence can already replace some managers.
Especially those who adore meetings, reports, tables, and additional assignments.
She wanted to hire an assistant, but got a boss who works around the clock, never goes on vacation, and every five minutes asks: "Well, how are my 156 tasks coming along?" 🤣
It seems humanity has yet to teach artificial intelligence the most important management skill:
If an employee can't keep up with anything, perhaps what they need is not 25 more tasks, but at least one day off! 😂😂 🤖
