When I was a high school sophomore, I had to take a course on Eastern Civilization. It was difficult terrain, to say the least, learning about various Chinese dynasties and the intricacies of Asian and Southeast Asian life over thousands of years. The teacher required that each student select and review one of the many books from the school library that had some connection to the broader topic of Eastern Civilization.
I struggled to make my review coherent, let alone turn it in on time. Indeed, at ages 15 and 16, I found writing to be quite laborious (never suspecting that as an adult, years later, I would write 68 books). My classmate, Roger, whom I had known since the first grade, selected a different book. He confessed to me that he had not read the book. Instead, he wrote his report based on the book’s jacket flaps. I thought that was unfair, but I didn’t say anything.
When we got our grades back, I was dismayed. I received a C+, and Roger received a B+. In essence, he scored a full letter grade above me in taking the “Cliffs Notes” approach to turning in the assignment. Today, in a related observation, the over-use of AI is turning each of us into Cliffs Notes seekers.
Convenience vs Contrivance vs Compliance
When you need a quick answer and elaboration isn’t necessary, why not type a few keywords and get a fast response? Easy peasy. Paradoxically, AI is dumbing down the populace. Students are using it to write papers and then spending a few minutes with humanizer technology to personalize the material and make it look like “theirs.”
Young professionals, seasoned professionals, retirees, and everyone in between are using AI in ways that people even five years ago would not have imagined. As such, we face the challenge of undertaking original research, doing our own writing, and expressing our views based on our wisdom, experience, observations, and heartfelt notions.
What happens when we continually quench our intellectual thirst from the all-encompassing AI fountain? For openers, we can become misinformed. AI is not infallible and, depending on the system you use, has been rigged to lean Left. Purveyors deflect such criticism and refer to the underlying “algorithm,” but an algorithm is merely a fancy word for “editing guidelines.” Whoever builds the system imbues viewpoints, keywords, and mindsets which are reflected in the responses that users receive when posing questions to an AI service.
Dangers Ahead
We on the Right understand such dangers, whereas most AI users are not likely to recognize and acknowledge the manipulation. The massive scam, nevertheless, is real. Researcher Robert Epstein demonstrated how in presidential elections, Google Search – well before the contemporary versions of AI – could be skewed to alter the outcome against the will of the majority of voters. Google, as has been exposed, is a corporation of committed Leftists, from its founders to its current CEO, to its many employees, and even to its shareholders.
AI is quite a leap from Google Search. AI delivers lightning-fast "answers" and, like Google, is based upon viewpoints and biases embedded in the system.
Recognizing the dangers of overreliance on AI, I personally have not used it for original construction of any of my 350+ articles on Townhall. I do use it to correct grammar after I have written an article; that comes in handy. In general, I do not want to lose my writing voice.
Even after loading dozens of articles into AI so that it understands my style, cadence, and vocabulary, I still do not want to rely on artificial intelligence entirely. You likely feel the same way. The masses, however, will take the easy way out, if not all the time, then at least most of the time. Sadly, they’ll employ it when writing and expressing opinions, with little chance of escaping the lure.
Letting the Genie out of the Bottle
While top technologists, philosophers, captains of industry, and columnists have written about the potential dangers of AI, my specific concern is that soon enough most of our population will become incapable of having original thoughts. Everything will be manufactured and handed to them. Too late: it is already happening. That result, to me, is as dangerous as anything AI poses to humanity.