The past couple of years, we have heard the phrases “I used AI;” and “Let me ask AI to do it for me;” quite a lot. There is a significant amount of reliance being placed on AI, and it continues to grow. Is AI a fallback? Something to do our work for us when we are unable to? Or is it a tool, a useful helper? Are you using AI as a tool or a crutch?
AI is being used for small tasks that a person could easily do. Is there something necessarily wrong with asking AI to do something simple like summarizing an article? Yes, it actually takes away from our abilities. People are more than capable of reading, understanding something and then summing it up. Continually asking AI to do things like this for you will take away from your capabilities. People say, “I could do it myself easily, and I know that, so I’ll just have AI do it.” However, after a while, you have to wonder why you can’t just do it yourself if it is so easy. It’s not what you’re even asking AI to do for you, it’s the principle of the thing. In this case, AI is less of a tool and more of a shortcut. Shortcuts aren’t inherently bad here, you just have to ask yourself, am I capable of doing this without AI?
As for larger tasks, it seems that AI would be more of a tool, but it depends on the task. For example, using AI for a school project is not in your best interests, but using AI to help sort data can be helpful and time saving. You cannot rely so heavily on your tools that you let them do all the work though. AI is often incorrect, plus it will never compare to the capabilities of the human mind.
Currently, AI is becoming a replacement for more and more things. Especially in the workforce, lots of jobs are being taken over by AI. Thousands of jobs in the United States are being replaced by AI monthly, especially entry level jobs. Why? Because it’s more convenient and efficient. It’s cheaper and easier to manage. Depending on what job, and how AI affects it, it can be a positive or negative change. For coders, AI can sort of unlock their capabilities, by speeding up tasks and augmenting their abilities. On the flip side however, there are barely any entry jobs in coding anymore and that is because all the jobs have been taken over by AI. Unfortunately this is often the case in many different career fields.
We also lose out on a lot of important human connection with AI being in the picture. Instead of talking to a person when you call someone, most of the time, you talk to an AI bot; and they’re not very helpful either.
To conclude, using AI as a tool means you are in charge. If you use it, it means you use it as a helper; you ask why, not how. You use it to learn faster, to brainstorm, all while keeping your own judgement and creativity as the focal point. Using AI’s work as a replacement for your own never does any good. Using AI as a crutch replaces thoughtfulness and capability. AI is a tool whose impact is all conditional depending on how it is used. We live in an age of AI, and if we choose to use it, we must learn how to use it in a beneficial way.
