"Dying Inside" is a book by Robert Silverberg I read years ago. I don't remember too many of the details, and I'm too lazy to look it up and refresh my memory of it, but I was reminded of it by my essay on AI, above, and by a story on Artificial Intelligence I watched on "60 Minutes" shortly afterward.
So please forgive me if my memory about the book fails me. Take my word for it, it is a powerful psychological study and well worth reading.

Silverberg's novel is set in New York City in the 1960s or 70s. The book's protagonist has been blessed with a remarkable gift: he is a man in his thirties who is also a deep telepath. The man can read other peoples' minds; not only their internal mental conversation, but the deeper thoughts and motivations that give it context. The anti-hero is an intelligent, but basically lazy and amoral individual. In spite of his phenomenal talent, he never uses it in a productive or meaningful way. He does use it to earn an easy living. The guy isn't particularly evil, but he's not very likable, either.

The protagonist hangs around Morningside Heights in Manhattan's Spanish Harlem, using his mental skills to target Columbia University students who need essays, term papers and theses ghost-written for them. He can quickly assess his victims, and can write a paper consistent with their general intelligence level and educational attainments, plus whatever information they have been exposed to in class. As a result, his clients are rarely accused of plagiarism, and they usually get a passing grade.

So what has any of this to do with AI? I was struck by the phenomenal gift this man has, yet he has never really been able to use it in a creative, productive, or even lucrative manner. In short, he has pissed away this incredible talent, he hasn't even been able to develop it into a decent scam or racket. And he has not used it to accumulate any wealth or cash reserves. He has relied on it all his life to make an easy living, assuming he will be able to do so indefinitely.

This is how I see us using the power of AI, for trivial and childish purposes.. We have unlocked the power of the gods, the mechanization of thought itself, and we use it to crib our term papers and write advertising copy for us.

So how does "Dying Inside" turn out? Our hero suddenly realizes he is losing his ability to read minds. He feels the gift slipping away, become more and more spotty and undependable. Like the grace and beauty of youth, his skill has a shelf life, and he has not parlayed it into anything else. In a panic, he realizes that in a few more months, a year at most, it will be gone forever. He will be just like everyone else.

And he is painfully aware he doesn't really know how to do anything else.