Eric C. So in his recently released book, The Collision: What AI Does to Us, uses a great analogy to describe AI.

So, a Professor of Global Economics and Behavioral Science at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, draws from Steve Jobs' 1980 analogy that technology is "a bicycle for the mind" (itself based on Stuart S. Wilson's 1973 Scientific American study, Bicycle Technology—a fascinating read!—on the energy efficiency of movement between different species and machines that put the salmon in first place, topped only by a human on a bicycle).

AI, So argues, is a motorcycle for the mind, stating, "…motorcycles come with warnings that bicycles don’t. When power increases, so does risk. They’re harder to hold steady and require more skill to operate safely. You wouldn’t hand one to a child without serious training. When things go wrong on a motorcycle, they go wrong at speeds that multiply the consequences."

AI, he reminds us, comes with important caveats:

"An amplifier of human intention, one so powerful that it qualitatively changes the relationship between human and machine. A tool that can take you places you couldn’t reach before. But one that can also take you off a cliff if you don’t know what you’re doing. Like a motorcycle, AI isn’t inherently good or bad. It depends entirely on how you use it."