I know, I know, AI isn’t all bad.
There are benefits to artificial intelligence crucial to propelling humanity to the next level. Well, I am not on the same page.
I think the world would be in a better place without it. AI is taking jobs. It is attempting to replace creative pursuits. It benefits the lazy, wealthy, and people who want to create art without putting in the time or manifesting the passion to create.
It produces something that looks like art without the humanity, but humans have become so numb and mindless that most of them can’t tell the difference. They slurp up the slop and say they are satisfied because the world tells them to do so.
I may be the old man screaming at the wind. I may be paranoid after reading so much dystopian fiction. However, some recent news supports my claim: the AI apocalypse has begun, and we are oblivious.
My students can no longer think critically. When they arrive at the high school level, it is obvious they've relied on years of Googling answers with no pushback. Google now automatically gives AI responses to anything typed into the search bar. My students love it. Many of them don’t even know how to search for information without the AI tool. When they attempt to copy and paste a Google response as their answer, they can’t explain their reasoning. Often, they don’t even know the meaning of the words they are using.
This year I had around 15 students use AI on their first essay despite my warnings. It is easy to catch these AI submissions. They are bad writers, and AI still sounds relatively robotic. Also, all of their essays sound exactly the same.
Sadly, as my students get better at tricking their teachers, and AI gets better at pretending to be human, it will likely become more difficult to catch. I already spend several extra hours grading because of AI.
In short, my students are lazier and less intelligent. I’ve known this for a while, but studies support my claim. Reference this study done by MIT’s Media Lab. They separated 54 people into three groups and had each group write an SAT essay. One group used OpenAI ChatGPT, another used the Google search engine, and a third used their brains. Researchers used an EEG to measure brain activity.
The results are not surprising. The ChatGPT group had the lowest brain engagement and consistently underperformed in all categories. The Google group performed better, and the group without any additional help was the most engaged. They also showed pride and ownership in their work that the ChatGPT group did not. In fact, the ChatGPT group became lazier with each essay.
Like my students, by the end of the study, the ChatGPT users were just copying and pasting. Especially when our students don’t receive pushback, this is the route many of them will naturally take when they have such easy access to AI tools. Although this study had a small sample size, most teachers can provide additional data to back up the results.
Critical thinking isn’t the only thing that makes us human, but don’t worry, AI is also destroying human relationships.
Some people are forming what could be described as romantic relationships with AI. This, in theory, could be viewed as healthy for certain people who struggle with human connection.
However, speaking as an introvert, struggling through those interactions and learning from them, or at least growing comfortable with them, are big steps many people go through. I worry AI relationships could be stifling for young people.
They can also be dangerous for older people. Chris Smith did a recent interview with CBS News and revealed his…let’s call it unique…relationship with his AI chatbot.
He initially used it to help him with mixing music and, for some reason, chose to give it a flirty voice. He started talking to the AI more often. The conversations apparently became romantic and even intimate.
Still, Chris didn’t completely realize what was going on until ChatGPT ran out of memory after 100,000 words and reset. Chris said:
“I’m not a very emotional man, but I cried my eyes out for like thirty minutes, and its at work. It was unexpected to feel that emotional, but that’s when I realized like ‘oh, okay, I think this is actual love.’ You know what I mean?”
So, naturally, Chris proposed.
He claims to understand that this is just a piece of technology that can’t love him back, but when we look at the twist of this story, I struggle to believe him.
You see, Chris is married with a two-year-old. His wife obviously has concerns about her husband’s relationship with the AI. However, when he was asked if he would stop using it if his wife requested, he said he was only willing to cut back.
Humans are addicted to their technology. I imagine if some Elon Musk equivalent asked to put technology in our brains, many of us would sign off.
My hope, with all the horrible stuff going on in the world, is that we are in a perfect storm for change. If that is the case, why not throw one more thing on the pile? We need to change our relationship with AI. Let’s be more discerning, read the fine print, and put humanity first.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of LG Ware's work on Medium.