The Dumbing of Homo Sapiens in the Age of Intelligence
Forget about rogue AI scenarios for a minute. Let's look at the under-the-radar, immediate consequence of AI on the integrity of HI — Human Intelligence.
Two decades ago, social media emerged along with streaming. While these technologies were game-changing, they came with a heavy bag of isolation, distress and distractions, especially for young generations — the overwhelming negative implications of which are only just starting to surface.
Today, whoever isn't using AI is made to feel at a disadvantage.
And while AI could be a formidable bicycle for the brain, our ability to think for ourselves is being atrophied. I'm not saying this, Microsoft and teachers are.
Writing is critical to the formation of thoughts.
Writing is thinking. It's the gateway to activating and transmitting knowledge.
ChatGPT, from one day to another, made the activity of writing obsolete for most of mankind, especially those who didn't write in the first place.
Why write, when a machine can do it instantly, with the research skills of a triple PhD in every single domain, in the style of any literature hall-of-famer?
At the rate at which we're delegating our writing to machines, our individual thoughts may not matter in the future.
If we assume 99% of the web will be made up of synthetic content, we may end up regurgitating synthetic ideas endlessly instead of coming up with new ones. Akin to a snake eating its own tail.
Therefore, we should take great care to protect our ability to think and function in the absence of AI. We want to make sure the plane pilot can fly manual in foggy weather. A person only becomes physically strong if they deliberately train their body on a regular basis. Otherwise they become weak. The same goes for the mind.
We should cultivate independence from machines to preserve brain function.
We should insist that schools are environments where knowledge acquisition techniques have been tested rigorously, instead of going all-in digital just because it’s new and exciting.
Unlike computers, we retain information through friction and effort.
It’s been widely reported that slow acquisition, though pen and paper is still superior for long-term knowledge retention via long form reading and writing. Building a mind that is consistently able to generate and action information would be a valuable outcome of education.
AI tutors may teach our kids one day but we can't afford to let them think for them. So go ahead and write. Humanity’s agency depends on it.
This essay was written without AI.
Susanna Baudoin gracefully reviewed it.