Is AI Making Us Lazy?
iamcharliegraham.substack.comI used to cheat by asking application specific programming tips from forums such as this one, stack exchange, /g/ (way back when), various IRC channels, etc. This is no longer practical with the Advent of AI, forcing me to actually read books for a change. One can't really judge their own intelligence but I certainly feel like I've gotten smarter the past couple years.
At some point we are going to need a bigger discussion on if AI will make us dumber because it replaces our deep thinking or make us smarter by having us level up. And what point does AI level up beyond what we as humans can do in terms of deep thought?
I predict it will be like the calculator: make some smarter and some dumber. There are people who use calculators as a tool to do the manual unintelligent work they already understand, so they can instead do more challenging math or other mentally challenging tasks that require math – and there are those who use a calculator so they do not need to understand basic arithmetic.
I said this a couple of times: the fastest way to make AI smarter than humans is to make humans dumber first.
What would make us regress in general intelligence is likely to be another, unsuspicious factor that double plays, intentionally or not, with the AI play.