Why Reading Is Relevant In The Era Of Artificial Intelligence

Reading is a life skill which develops the power to concentrate even as it boosts the ability to retain. Be under no illusion: Reading is very much an acquired taste but once a person has imbibed its guiltless pleasure, life is never quite the same again!

For the beginner, reading increases knowledge and improves vocabulary, while allowing her to evolve a communication style which will, likely, be a personal signature for the rest of her life. For the slightly more mature reader, it is all about exposure to new ideas and keeping abreast of contemporary trends, views and thought processes, while enabling critical thinking.

Despite living in a digital age, with AI the new panacea for everything that ails us, there is no downplaying the importance of reading. After all, the inability to critically communicate the nature of the problem for which one demands an answer from AI, inhibits any sort of progress and leaves AI powerless to offer an optimal solution. AI can, at best, respond to the nature and content of inputs offered to it. A feebly worded query which reeks of wooly-headedness is unlikely to elicit an elegant and clearly reasoned response. Even worse, the inability to read carefully, and analyse the quality of the response, could severely affect a business or academic outcome.

Reading is an activity which not only improves one’s self-confidence but stokes and encourages an individual to think creatively especially when it comes to solving problems. Each one of us evolves our own pattern of “speed-reading” or skimming over the countless documents which cross our desks every day. If we need to pore over every ten-page proposal for hours on end, instead of giving it the once over, distilling the salient points and structuring a response or a decision, as required, then the impact on productivity would be nothing short of calamitous.

Of course, when we read for leisure, the activity reduces stress levels and, in so doing, improves the quality and duration of sleep. There is ample evidence to suggest that exposure to blue light in the two to three hours before we turn in for the night plays havoc with our sleep pattern, delaying the onset and degrading the quality of deep sleep, which is critically important for learning and memory.

For those who read books, this is not a problem. Those reading on a device, be it a tablet, computer or e-reader are advised to turn off blue light by activating Night Light, Night Shift, or Blue Light Filter, depending on the type of device being used.

In an age of ideas and creativity, which, at some point in the very near future, may be the critical differentiator which prevents AI from rendering one’s job redundant, reading has never been more important for continued success.