Do we want to hand over our core competencies to machines? If we do so, the danger is that humanity will become stupid and the ability to think will be narrowed down to the privilege of only a small elite.
Artificial intelligence there is a lot of talk about the dangers. It is feared that the rapidly developing systems will give tools to cybercriminals and the spreaders of disinformation that threatens democracies.
Fortunately, political regulation has been undertaken to minimize the risks: the EU is currently preparing an artificial intelligence regulation to make the use of technology safe in work and private life.
From somewhere for the reason that the effects of artificial intelligence on the cognitive abilities of its users are hardly discussed, although even good inventions have insidious side effects.
When the human species learned to control fire, life became more comfortable: the home could be heated and food could be cooked. As the flip side of development Homo sapiens tolerate cold and pathogens worse than their ancestors.
Thanks to passenger cars, movement became faster, but at the same time, work trips became longer and people’s physical condition collapsed. The map application is an incomparable aid, but because of that, few people know how to navigate without a smartphone.
We put up with the inconvenience because it wasn’t better before. For the first time, however, an innovation is at hand that threatens the unique ability of the human species for abstract thought.
Of course, other animals also have thinking skills, but no other creature is capable of such a complex conceptualization of information and feelings. Without thoughts and the language that expresses them, there would be no special features produced by man: science, art, morality. Thinking is, to use the corporate term, our species core competence.
Of machines is said to handle routine work. The program calculates invoices and prepares reports. This leaves time for creative thinking. However, it seems that creative thinking can also be outsourced: I predict that the language model Chat GPT will soon also swamp columns, research articles and novels.
However, boring jobs and creativity are not opposites. Professional writers know that inspiration is useless without glutes. The texts that have been worked on the most are usually the most insightful in terms of content and the brightest in terms of rhetoric. Text is like dough that gets better when you knead it. So you have to strain your brain, expose yourself to strain.
“
It’s about what we find important and meaningful.
Of course it is difficult. “There is no method that people do not resort to in order to avoid the trouble of thinking,” said inventor Thomas Edison.
So far, teachers who get to read Chat GPT’s outputs have mostly been worried about this disadvantage of artificial intelligence. Instead of banning the program, it has been suggested that students be taught to edit texts prepared by artificial intelligence.
How can a child, teenager or adult improve a text without writing skills? Editing requires in-depth knowledge of language and text structures. Such a person does not develop if he does not first learn to read and write, in other words, to think.
Whether Chat GPT or some other algorithm produces content as well or even better than humans is irrelevant. Guaranteed to produce; if not yet, then in the future.
A more fundamental question is whether we want to hand over our core competencies to machines. If we do so, the danger is that humanity will become stupid and the ability to think will be narrowed down to the privilege of only a small elite.
Technological development is often treated as if it were not in our power at all, as if a person could not decide by himself which means to make his life easier or to degenerate his brain. In addition to political regulation, the use and limitation of artificial intelligence must be discussed – in schools, homes, companies and all institutions of society.
Basically, it’s about what we find important and meaningful. Does dedication, effort and perseverance still have value in today’s society?
The author is a writer and critic.
#Column #Thinking #outsourced