It took me months to teach my students to use AI for batch production, brainstorming, writing.
It might take me ages to unteach them.
AI is very important time saving tool. I thank God for the opportunity to live in the era when AI is born and became massively used. But overreliance on it robs us of skills to think, formulate thoughts and grow our personalities.
In this sense it becomes our enemy.
Allan Karr in his book about quitting smoking writes that smokers consider cigarettes their friends.
“This is my friend for life” – my husband exclaimed when I confronted him about smoking 20 years ago.
The word “friend” was bolt from the sky. In one word there was the whole philosophy of life. And cigarette had it’s own pedestal.
In upcoming years many people will place AI on the same pedestal. That is when it becomes our enemy. Not the opened one. But in disguise of friend. Just like cigarets for many.
What’s the danger apart of the AI Earth takeover?
A total braintakover like the zombie-ant-fungus.
This fungus takes control of an insect’s nervous system, forces it to move to an ideal location for the fungus, and then kills the host, releasing spores to infect more insects.
Fungus kills the ants physically. I think AI will be smarter, keeping the host physically existent. if we look at existence from the perspective of Descartes.*
* "I think, therefore I am," or cogito ergo sum, is a famous philosophical statement by French philosopher René Descartes. It means that the act of thinking, even if one is being deceived about the nature of reality, proves one's own existence. You must exist to think, and since you are thinking, you must exist.
Thinking is a skill, that vanishes just like the muscle of 50 years olds if they don’t excersize intentionally. Use it or lose it.
Is there a solution?
If the gym and strategic control of physical activity is the solution to seditary lifestyle that kills most of the worlds city population these days, then there is a similar solution to suppress the downsides of today’s technological advancement.
Back in the days of industrial revolution people were panicking that cars were becoming the main transport. Some were insisting in using horses by all means untill it was nearly impossible. Today horses are only used for tourist trips in the cities creating a huge discomfort to the traffic. And therefore mainly allowed in parks and historical sites.
No one could stop cars. No one will stop AI. What we can do is to create gyms for brains. That’s why I joined the blogging people and advance into authoring books. I found solution for myself so that I don’t get extinguished by the friend, which can easily turn into an enemy.