Since the beginning of time, humanity has strived and, in many cases, succeeded in making daily toil just a bit easier in every generation through innovation. Inherent in the human spirit is a need to tackle problems and find suitable solutions. In the present age, the latest developments center on high-speed computing and providing individuals with more information than ever before.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) age is here and will only continue to grow. A good portion of folks are hearing more and more about it, and those savvier with technology are already using it in ways beyond a simple subject search on Google or other search engines. But with every man-made thing, a negative effect often surfaces.
One of the obvious downsides of AI is the reliance on the technology to do what humans had to do for themselves. The instantaneous results are becoming such a crutch that they will inevitably have dire consequences for cognition. The brain, like other structures in the body, needs to be used and exercised to be effective in problem-solving and for basic literacy.
This has been the philosophy of education for millennia. It emphasized that education is training the brain to engage in hard mental work, sharpening its ability to tackle more complex problems and thoughts. This is why it was considered a discipline. We are to discipline our minds, training them to know the truth, beauty, and goodness. AI can never fulfill the responsibilities meant for people.
At the present rate, AI will supplant the age-old custom of forming minds that would otherwise require people to think beyond basic functions. Project that into the future, and you will have societies and cultures that become functionally illiterate. Vocabulary will decrease, reading books will diminish drastically, and logical thought will be a remnant of the past. The arts will suffer, and the creative drive of humanity will be harmed. Overstated? Perhaps, but a recent study is proving the point.
A landmark study by Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Oxford, MIT, and UCLA examined how AI is affecting human cognition. The researchers chose to use the metaphor of the frog in boiling water, familiar to many. According to the study, the degradation of thinking doesn’t happen all at once. Rather, it is a process that enables the bad part of human nature, which wants to avoid extra mental work and delegate it to AI or not at all.
In their study, the participants were given a series of mathematical and reading comprehension problems. One group had full access to AI, while the other worked out the problems on their own. Without warning, the researchers removed AI and asked that group to complete the mental tasks. What was discovered is that the group that used AI performed significantly worse than those who relied solely on their brains. The fact that the AI group did poorly on the test is not the most interesting part of the study.
It was expected that without the technical tutor, the controlled group would find it harder to answer the questions. What was discovered through the process was the human tendency to avoid harder tasks. Every participant had a skip button. There was no reward or punishment associated with the option to skip a question. The choice to answer the question was entirely up to the participants. The AI group skipped questions twice the rate of those without the aid of AI.
What the study found is the worst of human nature. Participants in the A! group were as intelligent as those in the other group, but with AI, the desire to solve the problem diminished perceptibly. This is what researchers call ” desirable difficulties ” that were lost by the AI group. Desirable difficulties can be described as problems that are a struggle, which in turn create challenges, and, over time, shape how a person learns, grows, and develops capabilities. The study shows that AI can be a catalyst for the less healthy aspects of our human nature by giving people an excuse not to address problems.
Grappling with a problem—working out a solution rather than getting the answer immediately—is not a hindrance to learning—it is learning. It is incumbent on societies to recognize that if the next generation has full access to AI without guardrails, it could result in a population unable to reason, learn, or create.
Instead of enhancing civilization, AI might throw it back to the Dark Ages. And just as Christian scholars saved human knowledge back then, there may be another opportunity to do the same in the near future.
Parents, demand that your children, now more than ever, do their homework without the help of AI.