Aaron Miller
Good news! I don’t have to write this column anymore. There are probably a few readers who are jumping for joy and exclaiming “good riddance!”
That’s right, instead of actually writing a column, I can just tell ChatGPT or some other generative AI to throw some words together. It’s just that easy now.
It doesn’t matter that AI has no idea about or can not care about the issues facing us in greater Columbus. One reason I have enjoyed books, art, and movies is that I was able to connect with the artist. After reading a book or seeing a work of art that resonated with me, I knew that someone else felt the exact same way I did. AI feels nothing.
Our society often rushes out to buy sparkly new gadgets without considering the long term consequences. We are told by impresario techbros we must have the newest toy or device. We rushed to use smartphones and social media without considering the long term consequences. We know now that these new technologies have had a terrible impact on our mental health and our society in general.
With AI, they want us to embrace a new technology that has the power to replace us. And we should be joyful about being replaced by an unfeeling machine, because that is progress, I guess. It has the potential to replace millions of jobs and upend the economy.
I’m no expert, but there are probably some good uses for AI, like analyzing vast amounts of data quickly to find new cures for diseases. But I don’t think AI should be used for any sort of creative endeavor or as a shortcut to develop critical thinking skills.
Many high school and college students are already using AI on their papers and assignments. Pied pipers of AI assure us that this is the wave of the future. When I have read papers written by AI, they are usually terrible. The writing is soulless and formulaic. AI papers often contain historical mistakes and grammatical errors. What are students learning if AI is doing the research and writing for them? Generative AI often confirms the opinion of a user rather than challenging them.
Like many other technologies, many of the companies who are selling AI are not interested at their software’s accuracy or arriving at objective answers. Rather, they want to keep you engaged using the software for as long as possible.
For proponents of AI, consider this scenario. If you are going to have brain surgery tomorrow, when your life is on the line, would you rather have a brain surgeon who got through medical school using AI to write their papers and do their homework or would you prefer a brain surgeon who was a competitor, never took a shortcut, and worked their rear end off to be the best? Well, I have been there before. If someone has to cut into my brain, I want a take no prisoners competitor who knows every part of the neurological system like the back of their hand.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently completed a study that concluded that people who used AI to write essays on a regular basis saw a dramatic decline in their cognitive abilities. That’s horrifying. Your brain is like a muscle. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
The computer power needed for artificial intelligence also requires enormous amounts of electricity and water. So AI is also an environmental calamity and will cause the cost of our utilities to skyrocket.
René Descartes, a guy who lived a long time ago and is a lot smarter than I, once opined, “I think, therefore I am.” If we use AI to do all of our writing and thinking for us, I think that means “I don’t think, therefore I ain’t?”
I don’t have to write this column anymore. But I am going to. I want to keep my mental faculties as long as possible.
Aaron Miller is a community columnist for The Republic. Send comments to editorial@therepublic.com.
