Are we using our brains less now that AI is here?
Questions That Keep Coming Up
For the past few months, I've been working closely with artificial intelligence, building it, testing it, and looking into what it can do. I've seen something change.
Not just in the tech.
But within of us.
We don't just use AI now and then. It's becoming a part of how we think, talk, and choose what to do. AI is slowly becoming a part of everyday life, from completing sophisticated research to just returning a message.
And with that, I've been thinking of a lot of questions.
Not answers, just questions that keep coming up.
Thinking and Dependence
- Are we turning into people who depend on others to think for us instead of people who think for themselves?
- What if AI is more than just a tool for us? What if it's our first instinct?
- Are we trading up understanding for speed?
- What part of us stops growing if AI does our thinking for us?
About Talking and How You Feel
- Should AI instruct us what to say to people?
- Are our feelings still ours if AI writes them down?
- Are our talks getting less real?
- Who actually feels it when AI says, "I miss you"?
About Finding Your Way and Making Choices Every Day
- Has AI made it impossible for us to learn and explore?
- Are we losing our ability to solve problems without even realizing it?
- Does being easy to use make you less curious?
On Duty and Morality
- Should AI be in charge of deciding what is right and wrong for us?
- When AI commits a mistake, who is to blame?
- Can you pretend to be empathetic without really knowing what it is?
About civilization and knowledge
- How did people in the past make things that are hard for us to make now?
- Can we forget things merely because we don't utilize them anymore?
- How much knowledge would humanity retain if AI ceased to exist tomorrow?
On Patterns and What's Next
- Are we going through a cycle where we make tools that take away our skills?
- Could depending too much on intelligence systems lead to a long-term decline?
- Are we changing, or are we progressively losing something that matters?
About Who You Are
- What is remaining human in a world when AI runs things?
- What happens to our own thoughts and feelings if AI grows better at showing them?
Why I'm Writing This
People aren't asking these questions because they're scared about AI.
They come from spending a lot of time with it.
By investigating how AI systems make judgments with empathy, I have learned a lot about how strong they are and how they are different from how people think. That disparity makes these questions even more important.
What's Next?
There are no answers in this post.
It's a good place to begin.
I'll talk about each of these questions in greater depth in the following several blogs, one at a time.
- By thinking about yourself
- In real life
- And based on what I found out during my research
Because maybe the real talk about AI isn't only
What can it do?
But:
What is it that is steadily changing in us?
