At my job I work directly with many recent college graduates and me and my peers have complained about what appears to be a decrease in critical thinking skills. If they hit a wall they just put their hands up and say “I don’t know.”
This article from Ars Technica about the use of AI to cheat happening at Ivy League schools is depressing.
A quote from professor Roberto Serrano:
”We cannot choose to become idiots.”
Sigh.
I get it, AI is the new hotness. It can provide a benefits in reviewing large amounts of information, building models and apps, research, etc but that shouldn’t come at the expense of knowledge. And I know, ”but Rob, you had the internet and Google and Wikipedia when you were in school. If you care about gaining knowledge why didn’t you read the encyclopedia? This is just progress.”
Fuck that.
There’s a clear and definitive difference in using the tools and technology to learn and letting AI do the learning. No greater understanding of a subject is gained, no mistakes made, no “eureka!” moments.
Out of all the things that scare me most about AI, this might be the scariest. The loss of the willingness and desire to learn. It’s what made AI possible. It’s what made the — often — unimaginable progress of the last 120 years possible. Now it seems like there’s a race to make the next 120 years devoid of original human thought.
Now excuse me while I yell at some kids that touched my lawn…