Although we have had Siri and possess the ability to take a picture and identify a plant in mere seconds, society’s dependency on AI has caused several setbacks. ChatGPT was released in 2022, offering users the chance to get answers to questions in a matter of seconds, but now, people are relying on ChatGPT for the smallest tasks, such as writing emails, getting homework answers, or even making art. In a broader setting, I understand using AI for grammar checking, clarification, and research questions. What I do not understand is the need to use AI for acting, writing an entire paper, and solving an issue that could easily be fixed by simple human logic.
As a society, we are losing the ability to think for ourselves. Which is horrible because the human mind is such a beautiful thing. Your favorite films were made because someone woke up one day and knew they needed to share their ideas and struggles with the world. That is what connects us as human beings. Our minds are capable of so much more than what we have begun to settle for. Humans used to solve complex science problems, produce plays, lead armies into battle, learn how to read and write, and develop new languages. We used to be capable of so much, and now we rely on a machine to think for us. A NYU professor wrote that heavy reliance on “AI assistance may detract from genuine human thought processes.” So, why are we willingly giving up our creativity?
Children are taught from as young as sixth grade how to write an email. You would sit in class, listen as your teacher showed you a sample, and practice writing an email to them. We are taught these skills as children, and all of a sudden we feel the need to make AI write it for us? I get that sometimes, people are in a rush or on a time crunch and just need something to be done, so they use AI. However, if you have all the time in the world and just decide that you do not have the willpower to write a simple email, how do you think that will affect your cognitive abilities?
Liz Mineo, a staff writer, references a study done by several MIT students dealing with the influence of AI on humanity’s cognitive abilities (the process of gaining and understanding things). The students revealed that the more humanity relies on AI tech, the more likely we are to have “‘cognitive atrophy’ and shrinking of critical thinking abilities” (The Harvard Gazette). The paper interviewed Tina Grotzer, a research scientist in education, and she goes into detail about how most people (including students) do not fully understand how AI works and how to use it. This dependency will eventually “lead to putting too much confidence in its output” and believing AI’s answers over facts. This is because people nowadays do not want to do the actual work it takes to come up with ideas and solve problems. Humanity has gotten too comfortable with AI doing everything.
Around 2024/2025, when AI was being used for more than answering questions and grammar, people started using AI to make “art.” Not only did AI completely mess up the proportions of a human and make everything look extremely cartoonish, but as it got asked that question more, it got better at making art. Yet, how can an image generated in mere seconds be considered art when humans can spend months creating a painting? If we continue using AI for this new idea of “art,” we will be putting artists out of a job. The main excuse people seem to have for using AI to make paintings and art is that it is “too hard” for them to do themselves. Making art dates back to the handprints archeologists found on cave walls, and AI should not have the ability to replace that. The Auckland Art Gallery explains that art was “rooted with communication: as a way to connect with others and as a means of keeping record.” Every single artist, whether it is Claude Monet or someone who paints for fun, has had to learn the basics of art. Many spend years studying human anatomy, color theory, the differences between watercolors and gouache paints, and even shading. People who use AI art should not be considered artists. They spent no time working on these skills and depended on a computer to paint a picture for them. Just because you cannot, does not mean AI should. If you can not do it, LEARN.
Even literature is not safe from the grip of AI. For thousands of years, humans have come up with characters and told intriguing stories. For years, people have found comfort in reading and learning all these stories that were written by real people with real emotions. That is what makes literature so important: it has the ability to emotionally connect to the person reading it. There have been hundreds of books that I have read, and just mourned the death of a character or sympathized with them because I connected with them on an emotional level. The author is the only person who can do that, and it is also because you need to have the human experience to be able to convey human reactions and situations. AI does not have the ability to feel emotions, making any AI form of literature emotionless. It will not connect to readers in the same way a book written by a human does. There is this underlying essence of hope and understanding that AI can not create. Humans have gone through similar events and have found a way to communicate with one another because of them. AI has never felt the same way we do.
Tim Boucher is an author who uses AI and has published well over eighty books. He uses AI for research/brainstorming purposes as well as generating text for the book. He admits that it only takes him “approximately 6 to 8 hours to create and publish,” but he has published a book “in as little as three hours, everything included” (Newsweek). The average author takes about “six months to several years before completing a book,” and the reason for this is that authors have to go through an entire writing process, change large chunks of the book, edit it several times, and find people who are willing to read and give feedback (Jane Friedman). Author Merilyn Simonds explains how writing often “requires the creation of a living, breathing, fully populated world,” which can take years of compelling world-building.
In addition to losing our ability to think for ourselves, using AI for measly purposes is wasting our water resources. We have limited water as is, but the overuse of AI causes our saved water “to cool the hardware used for training, deploying, and fine-tuning generative AI models,” which will lead to disrupted ecosystems and a decrease in water supplies (MIT News). The next time you use AI to write a simple email, create an entire painting, or write a book without having to put any effort in, think about how that will change thousands of years of history and humanity.