I use AI at work and for fun, but I’m worried what it may do to us individually and as a society if we’re not careful. Erik Hoel discusses one particular concern: We may become too reliant on AI doing our thinking for us. There isn’t convincing evidence either way yet, but it’s definitely yet another concern to keep an eye on.
I’m having trouble doing simple arithmetic in my head. Adding up two three-digit numbers is harder than it should be because I normally use the calculator on my phone, so I’m not used to doing this sort of operation in my head anymore. It’s not clear if AI will be similar to pocket calculators, which are diminishing our ability to do arithmetic but are otherwise harmless, or if the outcome will be more severe. Children may be at particularly high risk of this. As Hoel says, we wouldn’t want to have to worry about a generation of brain-drained meat puppets. Now there’s a nasty image.
Nehaveigur 