OODA and AI

Elon Musk may be the last great human maneuver artist at scale. While an outlier, he is not the future. The next “Great Khan” won’t be a billionaire with a Twitter addiction—it’ll be AI. Unlike Musk, AI won’t get bored, distracted, or start meme wars at 3am. It will maneuver tirelessly and adapt without ego. 

The OODA loop may seem like a theory of conflict, but it doubles as a framework for growth and progress. And in many ways, it looks a lot like modern machine learning systems, especially convolutional neural networks (CNNs) or generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs).

CNNs and GPTs are built to handle messy, high-dimensional information. They begin with a set of hardware components that sense incoming data. Hardware comes with firmware that crudely guides its function. Software then refines the analysis, synthesizing inputs into something useful.

For both CNNs and GPTs, inefficiencies in the hardware, firmware, or software will introduce entropy (uncertainty) and impedance (resistance). Both systems need clean, diverse, high-quality inputs to run at their best.

Humans work the same way. Your Orientation sharpens when you add variety to your experience, challenge your assumptions, and keep your biases in check. Starve it, and your decisions rot. It’s the same as a broken model spitting out garbage: garbage in, garbage out. And you probably know a few people who live by that principle.

Here’s the uncomfortable question: how different is our orientation from that of an AI system? If AI has its own OODA loop, does that make it closer to human cognition than most of us want to admit?

This is Boyd’s real genius—he understood that orientation is the schwerpunkt—the beating heart of adaptability. Whether us, our competitors, or our AI assistants, the same truth applies: orientation sets the limit of what we can become.

But here’s the kicker: AI has fewer restrictions to slow it down. Its orientation isn’t just faster—it’s limitless. Which means sooner or later, it won’t just match us. It’ll outmaneuver us all.

Colin

p.s. this section ends on a pretty gloomy note. i promise there is hope. AI doesn't have to become our overlord. it probably will and already is for most people. but that doesn't have to be you. reply "AI" and i'll teach you how.