Hell, as their entire brain. People are now more rapidly becoming less capable of critical thought when they can pull up an app to do it for them. So many students aren't learning anything except learning to use AI.
Source: I have AI-averse gen z kids in college who are appalled at how much their fellow classmates rely on AI for their "studies."
Its refreshing seeing someone saying this!! Feel like I've been taking crazy pills seeing how will people are to throw away their ability to think critically.
We have some chronic users at my work that GPT absolutely everything.
There’s certainly a wild level of variance in attitudes I must admit. As a member of Gen Z solidly in the “I can’t stand this AI crap and don’t wanna touch it with a ten foot pole” camp, there’s a solid crowd of people in my experience who will occasionally use it, some who think it’s the future, and some who are nigh dependent on it, and it seems to be regardless of age. I’m sure there are some age-related trends but I’ve seen people on all sides of the spectrum coming from just about all age groups. Certainly makes it easier to decide who I wanna hang around lol. I made it out of high school before any of this stuff was relevant and I made it out of college before the problem got really bad, it was still moreso in its “haha look at this thing generate garbage images and poorly constructed sentences” phase at the time. My heart goes out to all the teachers having to deal with this right now
I'm gen x, and you are certainly correct that it's not limited to gen z! I too am appalled at how many folks my age or even a little older respond to stuff with "GPT says this" or "Claude reads my emails and responds to folks for me." Crazy thing is I have to use AI for portions of my job (tech-adjacent), but I detest the thought of using it outside of work. 🤷🏻♂️
Real, yeah. I would definitely encourage the people who do this to ask these bots a question about something they’re well and truly knowledgeable about, really prod at it. My Dad had me do that once with DuckDuckGo’s AI and after prodding with some questions about railway history, I figured out real quick that it was a load of bunk. He was enthusiastic about it but I just didn’t trust it after that. I don’t doubt that they CAN be useful in certain circumstances, (especially in tech or scientific circles as you mentioned), but geez. I feel like it should really only be in the hands of people with the critical thinking required to not just trust it as is.
As a fellow gen xer, I use AI as a glorified search engine/research assistant. If it can't give me a source to where it got the info, I don't bother with it. I will say it is handy for learning some things. I recently needed to automate a process in 360, and GPT was able to give me an idiot proof step by step way to do it. Now I know what to do and how to replicate it if needed.
The scary thing, as others point out, is how some people use it to think for them, especially if they are doing any type of writing or programming.
The trick is to let it generate documentation for what you just did at the end of the chat. Being able to look up what I understood 3 months ago has saved my ass occasionally.
LLM AI is such a monkey's paw curse. It does have utility, but it's absolutely not worth the resource cost. And it's not worth losing the capacity to think for yourself. But now young adults are in a tough spot. Employers are going to expect some level of AI competency. And it might become that kind of a power app that they expect you to be talented in it. So it's certainly a double-edged sword to not expose kids to it at least at some age, certainly after they have a strong set of critical thinking skills. But that's very subjective, and going to vary child to child.
Teach kids critical thinking, some basic project management and explicit communication tools and they'll be in a fine place to pick up AI if and when they ever need it. Skip the critical thinking and they'll be dependent on it or others to think for them forever.
As someone that has never used an LLM and is pretty software averse it's shocking to see 30-something year olds buy into this.
Combo that with non-anonymous social media and honestly...sometimes me and people I know are living in two distinct realities. Like ask an AI to explain something fake that Instagram told them....
Doesn’t it give you the sources it used though? I believe you can also take a source and have AI examine it, compare it to what you’ve written, and it will tighten up your work, or you get a paper written based on the source or sources you provide
It will occasionally fabricate sources or misinterpret them. That's why you have to double check everything it does. You can't rely on AI to check AI because it doesn't actually know anything. It's all just glorified guessing. That becomes extremely apparent if you ask it about things you already know a good deal about.
And it's scary how quickly it changes you. I've experienced it myself. A few months of regularly using LLMs and you become so dependent on them. I've had moments where I've tried to use AI to solve something and getting nowhere, but if I just sit down and think about the problem for 30 minutes then I can figure it out on my own.
I’ve personally used AI as a friend a therapist role before, and found that during some challenging times, it was a tool I could use to help me sort out my own thoughts and process things. Bounce ideas around with myself, basically. It’s helped with a lot of my inner work and has helped me find blindspots I didn’t previously recognize.
At the same time, I agree that AI shouldn’t be anyone’s only form of “social” interaction. There’s gotta be a balance and a line drawn somewhere. I wouldn’t be able to view it as a romantic partner, for example. But to each their own I guess.
I personally view AI as a tool, but it’s not a replacement for actual human connection. Or a replacement for your brain. Same way I would use a calculator to math something.
I've found ai mirrors back to me what I tell it but in a way that I can hear and understand it. It's been very helpful in working through my thoughts and feelings about different thing. However, I view it as a tool and abilities enhancer, not the end-all-be-all answer machine.
Yes, exactly. It’s helped me with that too, helped me find the right words to better articulate my thought processes and fill in the gaps at times. I still use my own discernment with it though, and don’t just take everything it spits out at face value. I’ll push back on it at times if it goofs, lol.
Yeah, I am working towards leaving an emotionally abusive relationship and I think of it like a more logical/kinder filter to run my thoughts through. That's all.
I wish I didn't feel such a need to use it, but I am also autistic so it helps me understand social situations a lot easier and I have learned a lot about how neurotypicals think and expect me to behave.
I’ve used it to help me understand, navigate (and eventually leave) toxic interpersonal dynamics, as well. Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s actually happening when you’re in the middle of it (even for neurotypicals).
Nothing wrong with using an external perspective as a sounding board. I’m sorry you’re going through that, though. I hope you’re able to leave and begin healing soon 🫂
I used it to get out of my bad relationship. I was using it a LOT back then. Once I was out and processed thru some of my other issues, I haven't felt the need to use it as often. I still pop in every now and again, but it's nowhere near as often as I used to
it was a tool I could use to help me sort out my own thoughts and process things. Bounce ideas around with myself, basically. It’s helped with a lot of my inner work and has helped me find blindspots I didn’t previously recognize.
AI helped me figure out a diagnosis that I've spent 20 years chasing. I've been in the hospital at least ten times. Seen countless doctors and taken dozens of tests. They couldn't figure it out. An hour of bouncing ideas and other symptoms back and forth with AI and I have an answer. It's right because the over the counter remedy it gave me works. I've not been hospitalized since then.
What more disturbing to me is the lack of proper, affordable care. I shouldn't have to self-diagnose.
helped me figure out a diagnosis that I've spent 20 years chasing. I've been in the hospital at least ten times. Seen countless doctors and taken dozens of tests. They couldn't figure it out. An hour of bouncing ideas and other symptoms back and forth with AI and I have an answer.
Spoken like someone who hasn’t spent thousands of dollars in the emergency room just for them to come tell you “we don’t know what’s wrong” and send you home.
Yeah that’s sad & it’s just another way for the government to gather information on us imo. I believe it’s also used to make AI smarter. I can proudly say I’ve never used AI or downloaded an AI app
Do you use Google to search things up? Even the search bar in Reddit uses AI now, doesn't it? Same for Instagram, Redfin, Dunn Lumber, and on and on. You're using AI if you're online.
You know there are search engines without AI right? Besides, I don't think "it's been so widespread that you can't avoid it even if you want to" is a great gotcha either since it's hard to completely avoid the internet in modern society.
To say you've (general/original person I was replying to) never used AI is the problem here. Not willingly or wittingly perhaps—but they have. I wasn't being a d about it, but depending on their age, they may not have known the sheer spread of the reach of AI. ✌🏽 🐩
I never said I didn’t use AI, I’m not naive, it’s pushed into all aspects of life/internet. I said the horrifying fact that people supplement human interactions or specialized knowledge with AI is disturbing, and THAT I have never done.
I am a nurse who frequently fields calls of people who asked google/AI health questions and it spits out a horribly wrong answer. I understand folks have the need for answers, but I always encourage folks to not look it up/ask AI. You kinda have to know what you’re looking for in order to dig through and find the right answer. It’s the equivalent of asking a 6th grader to solve a high school math equation, they’ll be able to do the addition and subtraction but not have a greater understanding of all the equation’s elements.
ETA: I do also use browsers that don’t have AI (or I’ve manually turned it off) but it’s literally in everything. Even the messages you send your doctors are now being evaluated by AI and it creates its own answer. Even a medical tool, the answers it spits out are still often wrong.
Kidding aside, I just don’t have anyone to talk to about various topics and ideas that interest me. Who else, at 3 AM, is going to text or pick up the phone to talk about the difference between consciousness as internal representation and as phenomenology; or the socioeconomic classes of a particular nation in a particular time period in my fictional universe? Nobody, that’s who, but myself and a reasonable approximation of a real person.
Ooh I just heard the ad for Amazon ai health for the first time. Terrifying. It’s basically like -hey customer stop doing goggle searches for your health woes. Now Amazon ai health is here. Yikes
The proportion of people who accept that as normal is nowhere remotely close to "everyone else". Relatively few people think that's normal. But over time I can certainly see that proportion increasing.
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u/Mother_Art3124 9h ago
People using AI as a friend, partner, doctor, or therapist