Does AI Make Us "Dumber?"

Does artificial intelligence make its users dumber or less capable of critical thinking? Does AI-assisted writing make us less-capable writers? 

 

Lots of observers already note the increase in volume of AI-assisted writing we encounter daily. That isn’t too surprising. Commercial speech (advertising, marketing, workgroup communications) obviously benefits from AI use. 

It is not entirely clear to me that this is a big concern. Who cares whether bots or humans are creating advertising copy, really? Perhaps we care more whether co-workers can express themselves clearly, but again, it might not be a big concern if AI helps them make their points faster, more succinctly, and more clearly. 

Likewise, it might not be so clear whether we worry too much about ways AI can clarify non-fiction and instructional text, since the pont there is to transfer information or knowledge. 

AI might be more of an issue in some other fields, such as fiction writing, or script writing or poetry and so forth. 

Sometimes (perhaps often), that trend also is said to imperil writing skills, and that remains open to debate. But we might miss some of the countervailing matters. 

I spent much of my career as a journalist or analyst required to do lots of writing. And while I would agree that AI might help me when producing analytical text, such as final reports to customers or market studies (saving me the time of writing), I actually disagree that AI provides the same level of help in a journalist role, for example. 

Many journalists write because they enjoy writing. Producing content one does not write does not provide satisfaction. So it makes no sense to stop writing and lte AI do it. It’s kind of analogous to a painter allowing AI to produce a picture. It isn’t the same subjective value.

If one enjoys playing music, then having AI produce music is fine for some purposes, but does not replicate the “joy of playing music.” 

To be sure, perhaps most of our music, visual arts and text creation is harnessed to commercial purposes, and there is a bigger argument to be made that AI offloads work in such contexts. 

But “creatrives” often enjoy the process of creation itself. AI is no threat to those activities. When the “purpose” of painting, singing, playing instruments, writing or other creative pursuits is the inherent joy of doing so, AI is not going to stop people from doing so.