I’ve been thinking lately about how AI makes us both dumber and more dependent. I realized this when I found myself, not for the first time, asking Grok to remind me again how long to bake salmon at 400 degrees.
Really? You need computer assistance with baked salmon?
Deeper and Related
Our colleague Andrew McDiarmid has a terrific op-ed in the Chicago Tribune on that theme and on deeper, related matters. He has three recommendations for improving the intelligence of our interactions with AI. From “AI can’t function without our creativity. What does that tell us about humanness?”
Second, we limit our use of AI. That doesn’t mean ignore it completely — that would be hard to do now. It means be boss over it. The more we use it, the more we will want to use it. So before firing up ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Grok, ask a few questions: How will this infringe on my own creativity? Are there other ways I can get help with this? What is the mental and even spiritual cost to me of this AI session? Fight the urge to take the easy way out and then practice depending on AI less.
A Depressing Thing
I would bet that a lot of people are coming to suspect that our dependence on the algorithm is an insult to us as humans, and as creative beings. What a depressing thing to see so much AI “content” all around us — not, I should add, that I’m innocent myself of using AI images in this very space. Andrew concludes by considering the fact that our creativity is a reflection of our createdness. His final piece of advice:
Third, we consider the source of our creativity. [Russian philosopher Nikolai] Berdyaev argued that creativity in the world is only possible because the world is created. In the last century, scientists have found bountiful evidence of complexity and engineering in living systems that seems highly unlikely to have emerged from a world of evolved necessity. Earth bears the hallmarks of creative action, and it’s also the field of activity we use to create.
It follows, I think, that the dependence is a mark of respect neither for ourselves nor, more seriously, for our beautiful world’s Creator.