If you’ve ever done any kind of schoolwork or written a report in your job, chances are you’ve used a dictionary at some point. Quite possibly you’ve also used a thesaurus when you got stuck trying to find just the right word. And as much as we all hate auto-correct, you have to admit that using spellcheck when creating a document can be pretty handy. Writing tools are just assists, aren’t they? So why is everyone freaking out about AI?
It’s because AI is different.
As someone who writes for a living, the difference between using AI and those other writing tools seems clear to me. First, let’s talk about my favorite dinosaur, the Thesaurus. When I get stuck on a word choice or I just need to use a different adjective than the one I’ve used twice already, I’ve got my thesaurus on speed dial. For example, when I want to repeat how scary AI can be, I can use chilling or alarming to round out my feelings on the subject.
But this requires thought. To use this writing tool I have to:
- know what I want to express.
- recognize that I am getting redundant in my descriptions.
- consider which words that the thesaurus gives me will work best for the thought I’m trying to convey.
Even if I navigate to thesaurus.com rather than crack open a paperback version, it’s the same process. Whether I use my computer or a book doesn’t change the way the tool works. I still need to stretch my brain to make the tool work effectively.
And while we’re at it, what about computers? I gave up writing stories and articles longhand sometime around 1994. The lure of the word processor was too great. Screw up a word? Don’t sweat it, just hit that DELETE key and you’re back in business. It doesn’t even look messy! And hey, isn’t spell check awesome? I admit that sometimes I turn it off when I’m trying to focus, but reviewing a piece and letting the computer point out all my typos is sliced bread.
But I would argue that using a computer as a writing tool is much different than relying on AI. And you might wonder “Isn’t spell check just a dumber version of AI?” It’s a fair question, but I don’t believe spell check is anything like AI. My reasoning is the same as above. To use spell check, you still have to exercise that coiled, gray noodle between your ears. Sure, spell check is just a click away, but it’s not attempting to think for you. Spell check can spit out a version of a word it holds in its database, but it’s not capable of knowing that when you write about someone named Mr. Capyberra, you’re not trying to refer to a capybara. Or Canberra. Or carapace. Only you know that. So yeah, spell check is dumb, but it’s not the same as AI dumb.
Yet in fact, AI isn’t dumb at all. It’s actually getting smarter all the time. The more data we feed it, the more knowledge it has at its figurative fingertips when we ask, “Why is my capybara eating her feces?” And if that’s suddenly something you need to know about, then please try Wikipedia. Or better still, dust off those Encyclopedia Britannicas you use to decorate your home office.
AI is essentially a short cut to all the knowledge resources we have available online. And I believe that most people use it that way — a sort of glorified Ask Jeeves. Instead of typing a query into a search engine then combing through a couple pages of results to find a viable resource (Let’s be honest, who goes to the third page?), it’s much easier to just ask a question and get a written answer back. But this shortcut is actually making us dumber. And we’ve been here before, just in human form. When you were a kid, you might have asked a parent, “Why is the sky blue?” or “Where do babies come from?” or my personal favorite, “Why is my capybara eating her poop?” Depending on your parent’s education, personality, and level of chaos management in that moment, you got some kind of a reply:
“I don’t know.”
“Ask your Mother.”
“Cappy eats her poop to feed her gut flora, Honey (likely followed by, ‘But humans don’t do that!’).”
Whether you got a real answer or merely a deflection, you were relying on a handy resource to feed you information. Most likely you didn’t question the given answers because you trusted the parent you were asking. That’s a good thing — unless you are one of my children in which case it was a good idea to question just about everything I told you. By now my adult children know that God did not use crayons to color the sky. It was oil pastels.
And that’s the point where AI breaks down, too. Whether you ask AI a question or submit an idea to have it fleshed out for you, you are effectively turning off your brain and trusting that you’ll be spoon fed something that’s magical and correct. And why are we so intent on turning off our brains these days? Oh, right. Social media. A topic for another time, I suppose, but still relevant.
I read a story today about a teacher in Texas who does not allow her students to use AI in her classroom. They must use paper and pen to create their writing. More importantly than eschewing the computer, they are being taught how to use their brains.
As the world moves into the Age of AI, we’re going to have to reckon with it. Meaning, it’s going to be integrated in just about everything we do — if it isn’t already. We won’t be able to avoid it altogether, just like the inevitability of the motor car replacing the horse and buggy, the Industrial Revolution, or attempts at Fascism. What we can’t do is stick our heads in the sand and pretend the world isn’t changing. So are we doomed?
No. Not if we act now. While we face the imminent onslaught of AI, we still have our brains. And we need to use them as much as possible. Our society is on a slippery slope to the scene in Wall-e where people float lounge in floating chairs and rely on computers to do all their thinking for them. But we can avoid that fate by refusing to let AI engines reduce us to children asking the color of the sky. We need to be teaching our children to think through difficult tasks rather than offloading them to a computer. And just as a good parent guides their child in the direction of answers rather than handing them out like candy, AI tools should be viewed as an assist, not a feeding machine — after we solve that nagging using-up-all-our-Earthly-resources-and-killing-our-neighborhoods problem, of course. Humans are natural creators and problem solvers, and we only thrive when we’re actively engaged in solving problems and creating games, art, and music. Once we offload those tasks to a computer, we’re done for as a species.
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