# Martin Poliačik

> Slovak speaker, critical thinking educator and author of "AI for Smart Humans: How to Stay Uniquely You in a World of Increasingly Intelligent Machines" (Black Spring Press, London). He gives talks and training on AI for people who think for a living, helping them keep their own judgement in the conversation.

Former member of the Slovak parliament (10 years) and delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (4 years); co-founder of the Academy of Critical Thinking. Contact: hello@poliacik.ai

## Main pages
- [The book](https://poliacik.ai/bookinfo/): This book is your ticket to the AI age. Discover dozens of ways to turn your experience, knowledge and thinking patterns into genuine collaborative fluency, told through stories, real-life examples and lively language. Boredom not included.
- [For readers](https://poliacik.ai/book/): chapter materials and exercises for people who have the book
- [Reader's Companion](https://poliacik.ai/companion/): the book's 21 chapters and 26 tools, with five full exercises; free, no registration
- [Speaking](https://poliacik.ai/speaking/): keynotes, workshops, panels and moderation, in English and Slovak
- [Workshops](https://poliacik.ai/workshops/): for teams and for educators, from a 60-minute lecture to training over several days
- [Ask Martin](https://poliacik.ai/ask/): answers to common questions about thinking and working with AI
- [Glossary](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/): key terms as used in the book
- [About](https://poliacik.ai/about/)

## Talks
- [Hybrid Mind](https://poliacik.ai/speaking/hybrid-mind/): You bring experience. AI brings possibilities. How do you turn the exchange into work you understand and can stand behind?
- [Collaborative Fluency](https://poliacik.ai/speaking/collaborative-fluency/): A clear brief is only the beginning. Learn to question suggestions, revise your thinking and give the collaboration direction.
- [The Science of Hybrid Intelligence](https://poliacik.ai/speaking/science-of-hybrid-intelligence/): One headline says AI makes us smarter; another says it makes us lazy. Let’s look at what the studies actually measured.
- [CompensAItion](https://poliacik.ai/speaking/compensaition/): You can take the lift and still exercise your legs. Which parts of your thinking will you keep in practice?
- [Manifesto of a Curious Child](https://poliacik.ai/speaking/manifesto-of-a-curious-child/): “Why should I learn this if a machine can do it?” Let’s give that question the attention it deserves.

## Tools from the book
- [The Sketch](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/the-sketch/): Put your own thinking on paper before asking AI for a proposal.
- [Hybrid Mapping](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/hybrid-mapping/): Compare your map of a problem with AI’s. Investigate the differences.
- [AI Avatar Dialogues](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/ai-avatar-dialogues/): Explore a simulated perspective, then check it against the person’s actual work.
- [Multi-Avatar Simulations](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/multi-avatar-simulations/): Bring several simulated perspectives to one question. See where they disagree.
- [Inner Dialogues](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/inner-dialogues/): Let the competing parts of your thinking explain what they want.
- [Meta-prompting](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/meta-prompting/): Ask AI to help clarify the task before it starts solving it.
- [Digital Scaffolding](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/digital-scaffolding/): Choose the support that helps you take the next learning step.
- [Co-curating](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/co-curating/): Select, connect and shape AI’s contributions into work you understand.
- [CEEL](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/ceel/): Build a claim with an explanation, evidence and a link back to the question.
- [Detachment](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/detachment/): Put some distance between yourself and an opinion you want to examine.
- [Evidence Tests](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/evidence-tests/): Check whether the evidence is relevant, sufficient and trustworthy.
- [Pearl Necklace](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/pearl-necklace/): The facts are pearls. Make the connections between them visible.
- [Argument Bricks](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/argument-bricks/): Turn your arguments into pieces you can compare, test and rearrange.
- [Argumentation Strategy](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/argumentation-strategy/): Decide your aim. Select the arguments. Arrange them. Test the case.
- [Context and Criterion](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/context-and-criterion/): Understand the audience and agree what should decide the question.
- [Three-step Listening](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/three-step-listening/): Show you understand. Find common ground. Then explain the disagreement.
- [Extra Spin](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/extra-spin/): Examine another way to understand the situation that is frustrating you.
- [Columbo Questions](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/columbo-questions/): Ask the apparently simple question that opens up the reasoning.
- [Matlock Questions](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/matlock-questions/): Test the specific point you think you have understood.
- [Matrix Relationships](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/matrix-relationships/): Look at the outcome and the relationship. Choose your stance towards AI.
- [Strategic Thinking Pyramid](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/strategic-thinking-pyramid/): Build a path from what matters to actions someone can take.
- [Five Fingers](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/five-fingers/): Explain the problem, its cause, your plan, the resources and the benefits.
- [Futures Wheel](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/futures-wheel/): Trace what a change could lead to, then follow the next consequences.
- [Arm’s-Length Miracle](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/arms-length-miracle/): Choose one worthwhile action you can take with what is within reach.
- [Puppy Running](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/puppy-running/): Follow a small curiosity and see where it takes your thinking.
- [Thinking in Nuances](https://poliacik.ai/companion/tools/thinking-in-nuances/): Look for the conditions, differences and trade-offs hidden by a simple answer.

## Glossary
- [AI alignment](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/ai-alignment/): The effort to make AI systems behave in accordance with intended human goals, values and constraints.
- [AI avatar dialogue](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/ai-avatar-dialogue/): A conversation with an explicitly simulated perspective, such as that of a thinker, mentor or practitioner.
- [Automation bias](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/automation-bias/): Giving automated advice undue weight, including accepting it when relevant evidence calls it into question.
- [Co-curating](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/co-curating/): Selecting, connecting, arranging and refining material in collaboration with AI. Chapter 9 draws on the account of co-curating in Jain and Samuel (2025).
- [Cognitive atrophy](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/cognitive-atrophy/): Weakening of mental abilities through insufficient use or practice.
- [Cognitive offloading](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/cognitive-offloading/): Moving part of a mental task onto an external aid, such as a notebook, calculator or AI assistant.
- [Collaborative fluency](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/collaborative-fluency/): The ability to work effectively with AI while keeping your purpose, judgement and understanding involved. The book develops its practical account in Chapter 4, drawing on Walther (2025).
- [CompensAItion](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/compensaition/): Deliberately keeping valued thinking abilities in practice while benefiting from AI assistance. The name Martin uses for this approach in AI for Smart Humans.
- [Dialogical self](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/dialogical-self/): A view of the self as containing different positions that can enter into dialogue with one another. An established psychological theory applied in the book’s discussion of inner dialogue.
- [Digital scaffolding](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/digital-scaffolding/): Support from digital tools that helps a learner attempt work they cannot yet manage independently.
- [Epistemic vigilance](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/epistemic-vigilance/): The processes and habits used to assess information and the trustworthiness of its source.
- [Human-first principle](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/human-first-principle/): Begin with your own purpose, values and criteria when inviting AI into your work. Martin’s formulation in the book, building on broader approaches to human-centred AI.
- [Hybrid intelligence](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/hybrid-intelligence/): Combining human and machine capabilities in a shared activity or system. An established concept applied to everyday work throughout the book.
- [Intentional stance](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/intentional-stance/): Explaining or predicting a system’s behaviour by treating it as if it had beliefs, desires and intentions. Philosopher Daniel Dennett.
- [Metacognition](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/metacognition/): Awareness of your own thinking, together with the ability to monitor and regulate it.
- [Meta-prompting](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/meta-prompting/): Using AI to help clarify and develop the instructions for a task.
- [Misalignment](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/misalignment/): A mismatch between an AI system’s behaviour or objectives and the human intentions or requirements it should serve.
- [Multimodality](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/multimodality/): Working or communicating across more than one mode, such as text, images, diagrams and sound.
- [One Universal Communication](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/one-universal-communication/): The book’s proposition that many habits of effective human communication also help us work with AI. A central idea developed in AI for Smart Humans.
- [Shared mental model](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/shared-mental-model/): A sufficiently compatible understanding of a task or situation to support coordination.
- [Ventriloquising](https://poliacik.ai/glossary/ventriloquising/): Speaking through another voice; in this context, presenting AI-generated work with little understanding or involvement of your own. Chapter 9 draws on Jain and Samuel’s (2025) discussion of ventriloquising in AI-assisted work.

## Ask Martin
- [What should I do before I ask AI for help?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/before-asking-ai/)
- [What if the AI has a better idea than I do?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/ai-has-a-better-idea/)
- [Do I need to learn prompt engineering?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/prompt-engineering/)
- [How do I know if an AI answer is trustworthy?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/is-this-answer-trustworthy/)
- [Which AI is the best?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/which-ai-is-best/)
- [Should I keep fixing a chat that went wrong or start a new one?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/fix-the-chat-or-start-again/)
- [Does my AI remember what we agreed?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/does-ai-remember/)
- [What can I safely share with a chatbot?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/what-can-i-share/)
- [How do I give AI a clear brief for a project?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/longer-prompts/)
- [Will AI make me a worse thinker?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/will-ai-make-me-worse/)
- [What is CompensAItion?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/what-is-compensaition/)
- [Do I have to do everything the hard way to keep my mind fit?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/do-everything-the-hard-way/)
- [Is it ever sensible not to use AI?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/not-using-ai/)
- [Why do facts sometimes not change anyone’s mind?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/facts-dont-change-minds/)
- [How do I disagree without destroying the conversation?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/disagree-without-destroying/)
- [Did AI write your book?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/did-ai-write-your-book/)
- [Why is it called “for Smart Humans”? Do I have to be smart?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/do-i-have-to-be-smart/)
- [What should I try the day after I finish the book?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/what-to-try-after-the-book/)
- [Won’t a book about AI be out of date in a year?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/will-the-book-be-out-of-date/)
- [What do children most need to learn for a world with AI?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/what-children-need/)
- [Should an AI tutor always answer with another question?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/should-ai-tutors-ask-questions/)
- [How should teachers handle work made with AI?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/teachers-and-ai-work/)
- [Is individual critical thinking enough to make AI safe?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/is-critical-thinking-enough/)
- [Why use AI at all if you take its risks seriously?](https://poliacik.ai/ask/why-use-ai-at-all/)