For you, it might be writing the perfect application or choosing the best destination to travel to after your exams. For me, it’s about understanding the introduction to this article. As one of our most instinctive human instincts, we all want to know the answers to our questions. But we live in a time where, thanks to AI, we can completely unleash our “want-to-want” and instantly receive seemingly convincing answers due to their simplicity (don’t think I didn’t want to ask ChatGPT to write this to stop me staring at my laptop). Therefore, the question is inevitable: “What would happen if we no longer had to chase what we want?” What would you do if you could have it?
Before getting into these questions, it is essential to clarify the uses of AI that you feel need to be analyzed. As an aspiring scientist, I can’t help but be excited and intrigued by the potential of AI and machine learning to streamline research and improve lives at multiple scales. At the same time, we fear massive environmental damage to the planet, which is already on the brink of extinction. But my argument goes beyond this argument, and comes from a purer, more humane point of view: the increasing reliance on open source AI tools for everyday questions (which are becoming so trivial that it takes as long to find the answer as it does with AI).
Therefore, the addictive pleasure of using AI on a daily basis is the elimination of thought, which I interpret as a dangerous lack of comfort due to desire.
I need it, I want it, and I need to want it.
Desire is the driving force behind many of the things that make us human, including creativity, communication, curiosity, critical thinking, and passion. Seeking answers to every problem and forcing our brains to find answers and live while we don’t find them is essential to progress individually and socially…
Every human invention comes from someone’s desire to make our lives easier. Through this desire, time, knowledge, skills and money are found and transformed into final products and ideas. This is what most of us identify as a source of contentment.
With overwhelmingly accessible AI tools at our disposal, this desire-to-goal pipeline is reduced to an algorithm disconnected from our own thinking, and perhaps disconnecting us from the goal itself. This erodes the sense of satisfaction caused by accomplishment. Because it is the very process of fulfilling our own desires that brings us true happiness.
When an AI tool not only aligns with your assumptions, but also presents you with simplistic (and limited-sourced) answers, thinking for yourself starts to seem essential. The goal of AI is to make us believe we know the answer, not to help us understand it by answering our questions. Receiving information in this way therefore bypasses the normal route between wanting to learn and learning.
Learning and critical thinking are codependent. Learning properly requires critical thinking. Also, being critical of what you see and try to convince yourself of is a skill that needs to be practiced. The more we rely on AI to perform the most basic tasks, the more noticeable it will be lacking as a mediator in every decision we make. Simply put, we become stupid.
I know what you’re thinking.
To play devil’s advocate, I’m going to recognize the fallacy in my own logic that skepticism about technological change has been around for a long time. So while I may sound like those in the late 19th century who took part in the (now essential) invention of the telephone, where the concept of communicating without physical interaction was thought to disrupt society by allowing human connection despite the barriers of distance, this, to some, goes against our purpose on Earth.
However, the overuse of AI on a daily basis is an anomaly in the normal response to this social change. Overuse of this technology takes away more than it can provide. Immediate, mediocre answers do not provide the same benefits as important human-to-human interactions, where answers need to be constantly improved.
so what?
Most of the first concerns that come to mind when thinking about AI don’t apply to individual users, whether it’s the displacement of thousands of jobs, invasion of privacy, or the economic impact of the alleged bursting of the AI bubble. But underlying this is my fear that we are, by our own volition, losing the human essence of self-improvement in life. In the words of author Dennis Whateley, “The pursuit of happiness does not provide fulfillment; the pursuit of happiness provides satisfaction.”
So the next time you find yourself uploading a photo of a mysterious dishwasher button to ChatGPT, perhaps pause for a moment and ask yourself, “Can I afford to want to know the answer?”
