Is this Generation Scared of Thinking?

I write this article not out of some perceived sense of intellectual superiority, nor do I mean to write as if I have the moral high ground in this debate. Perhaps I write out of bitterness that people in society can no longer be valued based on their intellect. Or perhaps, I write this to unpack something I don’t understand. Whatever the case may be, I write, and today’s topic is AI.

I suppose what brings me to this topic is AP US History. I enjoy the class; it was something I was looking forward to last year, and it fascinates me because it makes me think. I like classes in which I don’t just have to memorize stuff, I have to be able to apply that stuff to other things. Now APUSH has a lot of work involved; there are packets of notes and worksheets that all need to be completed to retain all the information required to pass the class. However, an interesting phenomenon that I’ve been noticing is that almost everyone around me seems to be using ChatGPT to complete the worksheets and notes. It strikes me as bizarre to use AI for this class specifically, because of how it’s used. Let me outline the process: 

Step 1: Take screenshots of or copy and paste each paragraph of the chapter in the textbook.

Step 2: Upload all the screenshots to ChatGPT.

Step 3: Write extremely specific instructions for the AI (ex., summarize the paragraph, write 5 bullet points on the main ideas of the paragraph, write them like a 10th grader, make them short, and the list goes on and on)

Step 4: Copy, copy, copy. Repeat.

If it hasn’t hit you yet, let me explain. What strikes me as so bizarre about this process is the amount of menial labor it requires. You have to copy and paste the same sentences to keep feeding the same instructions to the AI. You have to “cover your tracks” (Teachers aren’t stupid. I don’t think the “write like a student” instruction would fool them). Then, you have to gobble up ChatGPT’s vomit like a dog. The dog eats because it has some irrepressible, instinctual urge to do so. Call it instinct or stupidity, but it will eat. We humans, though, know better. We are not forced to do what we do. So why do we do it?

This is the core of my confusion. Why do my classmates favor menial labor over intellectual strain? This is BISV., We are supposed to be a community of intellectual thinkers, the next generation’s academic minds. Our teachers are very qualified — half of them have PhDs. It’s not like the students here aren’t smart, either. So why, in such an academically strong community, are people so afraid of using their minds? Why are we so anxious to find an unskilled, dull task, just to avoid the pain of engaging with what’s in front of us?

From this question arises many more similar questions. Most importantly: What do you want to do in your life? Where are you seeking to go? Now this is not a loaded question, I am not insinuating that there is nowhere to go, having gotten through school with AI, nor that there is nothing in life that can be accomplished without the use of one’s own mind. I’m sure there will always be a need for unskilled laborers. (I jest, but I’m sure you see my point).

But alas, this satirical witticism is not wholly true. The people here will go places. MIT, Stanford, Columbia, you name it. We are smart, after all, even if we are absolutely terrified of the prospect of doing real work. So what will become of us? Will we always have the opportunity to use ChatGPT for whatever needs to be done for our jobs or our work? Is that bad? 

Anyway, I’ll end with this. I believe there is a future to AI, but it’s not the one we seem to be pursuing. I want a ChatGPT that can do my laundry, not my art. I want a ChatGPT that can do the dishes, not write my emails. I want an AI that can enhance the best qualities of humanity, our creativity, our consciousness, our endless pursuit of understanding, not an AI that dilutes them. The day when humans sweep the floors while ChatGPT wrestles with the eternal questions we have tried to answer since the eras of Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Plato will be the day artificial intelligence replaces humanity.