2mo ago

‘Don’t ask what AI can do for us, ask what it is doing to us’: are ChatGPT and co harming human intelligence?

www.theguardian.com

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2mo ago

‘Don’t ask what AI can do for us, ask what it is doing to us’: are ChatGPT and co harming human intelligence?

www.theguardian.com /technology/2025/apr/19/dont-ask-what-ai-can-do-for-us-ask-what-it-is-doing-to-us-are-chatgpt-and-co-harming-human-intelligence

17 comments

I think there is something to be said about AI usage in schools by children.
You cannot convince me children just simply don’t want to learn. The fact that children will have AI solve their homework for them in order to avoid it can be seen as a crucial flaw in our education system. We need to seriously consider a new, entirely different system for teaching. One that will realistically keep children more engaged. I absolutely despised school when I was a teenager, now in my 20s, and I can’t stop finding subjects I want to learn about. What does that have to say about our system?
Lol a big fucking duh yeah
We don't know. Same with internet. Information is faster than human for couple generations, maybe our civilisation died a long time ago.
Same old trend of thoughtlessly offloading jobs onto the computer instead of collaborating with and over the computer.
https://www.quora.com/Who-invented-the-modern-computer-look-and-feel/answer/Harri-K-Hiltunen
Similarly, cars are designed to atrophy muscles.
the better it gets the worse this problem is, let's invest another trillion dollars on GPUs
Lol. Ok buddy.
So you think people become more stupid by listening to Donald Trump? How about watching shitty TV? Like, do you think your brain is so vulnerable, and you're so much of a pushover, that a real-time choose your own adventure system is gonna fuck you up?
Give me a break, AI has real deal breaker issues, but this is just "vaccines cause autism, level science.
- Microsoft did a study on this and they found that those who made heavy usage of AI tools said they felt dumber:
  "Such consternation is not unfounded. Used improperly, technologies can and do result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved. As Bainbridge [7] noted, a key irony of automation is that by mechanising routine tasks and leaving exception-handling to the human user, you deprive the user of the routine opportunities to practice their judgement and strengthen their cognitive musculature, leaving them atrophied and unprepared when the exceptions do arise."
  Cognitive ability is like a muscle. If it is not used regularly, it will decay.
  It also said it made people less creative:
  "users with access to GenAI tools produce a less diverse set of outcomes for the same task, compared to those without. This tendency for convergence reflects a lack of personal, contextualised, critical and reflective judgement of AI output and thus can be interpreted as a deterioration of critical thinking."
  LINK
  
  Your "study" is based on self-reported opinions, funded by a company with serious conflict of interests and not peer reviewed.
  Damn, you got me .
- By combining related and unrelated, reasonable and ridiculous examples, the unwary might think you made a legitimate argument. Instead, you made a straw man, probably without even realizing it, and it provides a great exemple of what this article is talking about.
  Humans aren't born with a robust mental skill set, so skills must be learned. If they are not learned, are learned poorly, or decline due to disuse, then functional intellectual performance suffers. AI use supplements or replaces multiple key skills, particularly relevant here the communication of complex concepts and critical thinking.
  Critical thinking skills are, well, critical. Using critical thinking, I look at your comment and ask "does this comment make sense? Does listening to Donald Trump inherently mean letting him think for me? Could cognitive skill atrophy due to disuse be resisted by 'not being a pushover'? Greatest of all, did this person read the fucking article?"
  Answer key: no; LOL WTF nooo; obviously not.
I feel like this is phones, not AI.
- Why not both? And are phones really an issue or is it how they're used?
  
  Well, anything's issue is how it's used. I'm saying that people getting addicted to little dopamine-loops on their phones as a daily part of their reality is probably very connected to them losing mental capacity over time.
- Both

17 comments