Ethan Mollick
Professor at Wharton studying how people actually use AI, and author of Co-Intelligence. Writes One Useful Thing, where the claims are dated and testable because the thing they describe keeps changing under them.
Ethan Mollick did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
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What they believe
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The current capabilities of existing AI models are barely being used and are often not even well understood.
My point is that, while there is a lot of debate over what future models will do, the current capabilities of existing models are barely being used, and are often not even well understood.
oneusefulthing.orgSaid 18 Sept 2026This on korrents
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Human initiative to push, experiment, and act without waiting for instructions seems increasingly important for getting value from AI.
Human agency, the willingness to push, experiment and act without waiting for instructions, seems increasingly important to getting value out of AI
oneusefulthing.orgSaid 31 Aug 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
1 October
18 September
From one piece The Overhang 3 beliefs · oneusefulthing.org
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Their words
So change is coming no matter how the frontier is paced. It will not happen all at once and it will be uneven, but it is inevitable.
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Their words
You are not trying to compete with AI in producing outputs, that is a losing game. Instead, you want to use your human advantages as basis of working with AI to do things that neither of you could do alone.
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korrents.com
The current capabilities of existing AI models are barely being used and are often not even well understood.Their words
My point is that, while there is a lot of debate over what future models will do, the current capabilities of existing models are barely being used, and are often not even well understood.
31 August
From one piece Agency and Agents 3 beliefs · oneusefulthing.org
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Their words
We found that AIs are actually quite creative and that they generate more commercially viable ideas than groups of humans, but those ideas are very similar to each other.
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korrents.com
AI-generated writing tends to repeat the same themes, names, and underlying ideas across different outputs.Their words
AIs don’t just repeat the same sentence patterns but also the same themes (memory is a favorite), names (Elara Voss, Marcus Chen), and underlying ideas.
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Their words
Human agency, the willingness to push, experiment and act without waiting for instructions, seems increasingly important to getting value out of AI
23 July
From one piece An opinionated guide to which AI to use to do stuff 2 beliefs · oneusefulthing.org
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korrents.com
Microsoft Copilot is adequate for office document work but significantly behind in agentic capabilityTheir words
Copilot, which uses a mix of AI models and is okay for working with office documents but lags badly in terms of its agentic abilities.
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korrents.com
Higher-priced AI subscription tiers mainly buy more hours of agent usage rather than a smarter underlying modelTheir words
The more expensive plans are mostly buying you more hours of AI labor, not smarter AI.
30 June
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26 May
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31 March
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27 January
7 January
20 December 2025
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
The current capabilities of existing AI models are barely being used and are often not even well understood.
My point is that, while there is a lot of debate over what future models will do, the current capabilities of existing models are barely being used, and are often not even well understood.
The Overhang Said 18 Sept 2026
Competing with AI in producing outputs is a losing game; human advantages should be used to work with AI on things neither could do alone.
You are not trying to compete with AI in producing outputs, that is a losing game. Instead, you want to use your human advantages as basis of working with AI to do things that neither of you could do alone.
The Overhang Said 18 Sept 2026
Change from already-capable AI is inevitable no matter how the frontier is paced, though it will be uneven and not all at once.
So change is coming no matter how the frontier is paced. It will not happen all at once and it will be uneven, but it is inevitable.
The Overhang Said 18 Sept 2026
Show 7 more
Human initiative to push, experiment, and act without waiting for instructions seems increasingly important for getting value from AI.
Human agency, the willingness to push, experiment and act without waiting for instructions, seems increasingly important to getting value out of AI
Agency and Agents Said 31 Aug 2026
AI-generated writing tends to repeat the same themes, names, and underlying ideas across different outputs.
AIs don’t just repeat the same sentence patterns but also the same themes (memory is a favorite), names (Elara Voss, Marcus Chen), and underlying ideas.
Agency and Agents Said 31 Aug 2026
Research by the author and colleagues found that AI models generate more commercially viable ideas than groups of humans, but those ideas are very similar.
We found that AIs are actually quite creative and that they generate more commercially viable ideas than groups of humans, but those ideas are very similar to each other.
Agency and Agents Said 31 Aug 2026
Higher-priced AI subscription tiers mainly buy more hours of agent usage rather than a smarter underlying model
The more expensive plans are mostly buying you more hours of AI labor, not smarter AI.
An opinionated guide to which AI to use to do stuff Said 23 Jul 2026
Microsoft Copilot is adequate for office document work but significantly behind in agentic capability
Copilot, which uses a mix of AI models and is okay for working with office documents but lags badly in terms of its agentic abilities.
An opinionated guide to which AI to use to do stuff Said 23 Jul 2026
Because of hallucination risk, you should use AI first on topics you already understand
The risk of hallucination is why I always recommend using AI for topics you understand until you have a sense for their capabilities and issues.
Using AI Right Now: A Quick Guide Said 23 Jun 2025
Current AI models cannot produce insights beyond human understanding, however impressive they seem
You should remember that the best AIs can perform at the level of a very smart person on some tasks, but current models cannot provide miraculous insights beyond human understanding.
Using AI Right Now: A Quick Guide Said 23 Jun 2025
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Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 13 things, 15 mentions — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Liked Veo 3
Generally, ChatGPT is stronger. On video creation, however, Gemini’s Veo 3 is very impressive, and you get several free uses a day
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Mixed on DeepSeek r1
r1, a Chinese model, is very capable and free to use, but is missing a few features from the other companies and it is not clear that they will keep up in the long term.
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Mixed on Microsoft Copilot
offers many of the features of ChatGPT and is accessible to users through Windows, but it can be hard to control what models you are using and when.
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Show 12 more
Mixed on Grok
by Elon Musk’s xAI is good if you are a big X user, though the company has not been very transparent about how its AI operates.
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Uses OpenAI o3
I use o3, Claude 4 Opus, and Gemini 2.5 Pro for any serious work that I do.
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Recommends ChatGPT
So, for most people, just stick with Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Recommends Gemini
So, for most people, just stick with Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Recommends Claude
So, for most people, just stick with Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT
oneusefulthing.org 23 Jun 2025
Liked Gemini
Gemini’s advantage is a family of powerful models including reasoners, very good integration with search, and a pretty easy-to-use user interface, as you might expect from Google. It also has top-flight image and video generation.
oneusefulthing.org 26 Jan 2025
Liked ChatGPT
currently has the best Live Mode in its Advanced Voice Mode. The other big advantage of ChatGPT is that it does everything, often in somewhat confusing ways
oneusefulthing.org 26 Jan 2025
Liked DeepSeek
if you want a very good all-around model with excellent reasoning. As an open model, you can either use it hosted on the original Chinese DeepSeek site or from a number of local providers.
oneusefulthing.org 26 Jan 2025
Loved Claude 3.5 Sonnet
and really only has one model you care about - Claude 3.5 Sonnet. But Sonnet is very, very good. It often seems to be clever and insightful in ways that the other models are not.
oneusefulthing.org 26 Jan 2025
Recommends AI as Normal Technology
One of the most level-headed observers of AI (even though we don't always agree!)
oneusefulthing.org 7 Jan 2024
Recommends The Roots of Progress
Discussions of the history, and future, of progress
oneusefulthing.org 7 Jan 2024
Recommends Think Like A Game Designer
Insights from an award-winning game designer on how thinking like a designer can help you see problems in new ways
oneusefulthing.org 7 Jan 2024
Where they publish
Newsletter One Useful Thing Their newsletter on what AI can actually do at work.
Posts testing what current models do in real teaching and working settings, usually with the prompts and outputs shown. Has a feed.
Recent
- The Dot and the Swarm 1 Oct 2026 Benefitting from the Bitter Lesson
- The Overhang 18 Sept 2026 Using your deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste, and agency
- Agency and Agents 31 Aug 2026 From the Hugging Face Incident to Twilight Factories
Show 17 more
- An opinionated guide to which AI to use to do stuff 23 Jul 2026 The Summer 2026 Edition
- The twilight of the chatbots 30 Jun 2026 How work changes along the exponential
- What it feels like to work with Mythos 9 Jun 2026 Claude Fable represents another big jump in AI
- Co-Existence and the End of Co-Intelligence 4 Jun 2026 Also: how pitch a book to an AI!
- Choosing to Stay Human 26 May 2026 If you go to your favorite social media site, you will find it full of posts that start to look suspiciously similar to each other:
- Sign of the future: GPT-5.5 23 Apr 2026 One impressive step on the curve
- Claude Dispatch and the Power of Interfaces 31 Mar 2026 We often lack the tools for the job, even if the AI is capable enough
- The Shape of the Thing 12 Mar 2026 Where we are right now, and what likely happens next
- A Guide to Which AI to Use in the Agentic Era 18 Feb 2026 It's not just chatbots anymore
- Management as AI superpower 27 Jan 2026 Thriving in a world of agents
- Claude Code and What Comes Next 7 Jan 2026 With the right tools, AI can accomplish impressive things
- The Shape of AI: Jaggedness, Bottlenecks and Salients 20 Dec 2025 And why Nano Banana Pro is such a big deal
- Three Years from GPT-3 to Gemini 3 18 Nov 2025 From chatbots to agents
- Giving your AI a Job Interview 12 Nov 2025 As AI advice becomes more important, we are going to need to get better at assessing it
- An Opinionated Guide to Using AI Right Now 19 Oct 2025 What AI to use in late 2025
- Real AI Agents and Real Work 29 Sept 2025 The race between human-centered work and infinite PowerPoints
- On Working with Wizards 11 Sept 2025 Verifying magic on the jagged frontier
Link verified 1 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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