Is AI Making Us Dumber?

Artificial Intelligence has been around since 1956, when it was formally created at the Dartmouth Conference. However, early AI differs from the technology we currently have. Chat GPT, one of the most famous AIs today, was introduced by OpenAI on November 30, 2022.  According to the company, the purpose of ChatGPT is to answer users' questions, engage in respectful conversations, generate human-like text, and assist with a wide range of tasks. In theory, this idea was flawless: a tool that answers questions accurately and rapidly, helping users with school assignments, work tasks, and much more. However, as its popularity quickly grew, a lot of concerns regarding plagiarism, integrity, and accuracy were brought up. This leads us to the main question: is AI making us dumber?

As we develop, our brain starts to improve our ability to analyze, evaluate, and interpret information for a given task. Critical thinking is essential to our daily life: it helps us innovate, create, study, and develop. However, recent studies have shown that, with the overreliance on Artificial Intelligence, the new generation isn't properly developing its critical thinking as they are not exactly thinking on their own. A tool whose purpose was to assist was now doing all the work. To approach AI in a different way, teachers have been trying to integrate it into their daily work by creating more interactive and fun classes to teach kids that AI should be used as a tool, not as a replacement.

Even though teachers have tested this method, some students still choose to overly rely on AI for their tasks, considering that it saves them time and often guarantees them a good grade. What they don't think about enough is the long-term consequences that come with this practice. In the future, they will most likely not be able to constantly rely on AI. However, because they have gotten used to a robot  doing their work automatically and with precision, they won't be able to work on their own, even in the most simple tasks. With the wide range of AI nowadays, it's hard not to rely on it; doing work on your own requires patience, hardwork, and self-management–things that teens often lack. What they need to understand is what society and teachers are trying to teach: AI's purpose is to be a helpful tool for the user's tasks, but if you give it a prompt to write you a full essay, it will not refuse; instead, it will write the essay and then humanize it for the user, since it is programmed to do so.

Finally, answering the main question: is AI making us dumber? In reality, this is not exactly the case. Its impact on human intelligence depends entirely on how it's used. If the user overrelies on AI for simple daily tasks, it is normal that their ability to think and solve problems on their own will not develop properly, which will most likely result in dependence in the future. However, if used properly as a helpful tool that assists you through tasks like summarizing an article or explaining a video, users will still be able to develop their critical thinking. In fact, AI can even enhance human capabilities if used as a collaborative tool that helps us develop and progress throughout our lives.