This past week, in one of my classes, over half of my classmates were accused of using AI in order to write a short essay assignment. Kids who I thought were smarter than that, better than that, were having mental breakdowns over the fact that they got caught cheating. Most of their arguments were “I just use it as a tool to get me started,” or “It only helped me with my outline!” So many of them were acting like they were completely helpless to do the assignment without the help of ChatGPT, which shocked me. Are we really so dependent on a technology that only came out three years ago that we are forgetting how to think for ourselves? The answer is yes, yes, we are dependent on it, and our society is suffering from this overdependence.
It seems like every single day, more and more, AI use is becoming normalized and almost expected, especially in schools. I take a walk around my campus, and as I glance at students’ computers, I see the ChatGPT logo open next to a Google Doc as they toggle between the tabs, not even bothering to rephrase their thoughts, simply just copying and pasting the information that AI had regurgitated. As a writer, the thought of people not being able to write even simple sentences without the help of a computer makes me incredibly distraught. How are we meant to ever think for ourselves if so many young people rely on AI to do the work for them?
The truth is, people are forgetting how to do simple things because they are so accustomed to a computer doing everything for them. Even with simple Google searches, people don’t look beyond the automatic Google AI answer that is provided. They simply take the information at face value and don’t stop to think, is this even accurate? AI, particularly ChatGPT and Google AI, tends to hallucinate, making up “facts” or providing sources that simply do not exist outside of the AI’s delusions. This is rapidly becoming dangerous. As a society, we are so reliant on social media for our news, but can we even trust what we see anymore?
In this new and for lack of a better word, unprecedented, tech-dependent society that we are living in, how can we combat this growing feeling of helplessness regarding accuracy? My personal solution has been to completely avoid and disregard AI anytime I see or hear about it. I Google something, and an AI answer pops up? I scroll past it until I find an actual website, with an actual answer. I don’t know how to get started on a paper? I take myself back to my middle school ELA classrooms and think about what my teacher would have said, how she would have started it. I need something explained simply to me? I promise you, there is someone out there, whether on Reddit, YouTube, or somewhere else, who has had the exact same question as you and they were able to find an answer, without a series of ones and zeros spitting up lies and hallucinations.
Combating AI use is easy when you remember who we used to be before it existed. For thousands of years, humans have written essays, prepared study material, asked questions, and gotten answers, all without AI. Entire civilizations have risen and fallen, humans have evolved and devolved, learned and unlearned secrets of the world, and they didn’t have a computer telling them “Deep breaths-you are doing great!”.
Don’t let a computer be the reason our society falls. Don’t let others’ inability to think influence you and your education. Don’t do yourself a disservice by letting AI do everything for you. Struggle to get your words out by yourself, fail the assignment by yourself, do it by yourself, be a human. I promise you can. Learning is cool, learning is important, and thinking for yourself is one of the sexiest things you can do for yourself.