Jeff Sharlet writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education that My Students Hate AI. But They Can’t Stop Using It.
My students know all too well what AI corporations are “working on.” They feel worked on, indeed. This past term I asked my students to submit their anonymous thoughts about AI in writing. I wish I could tell you the responses thrummed with defiance. Instead, the mood ranged from resignation to despair. Some read like substance-abuse testimonies.
Anecdotally, I find this aligns with what I’m hearing from college students. There is fear everywhere—fear of AI taking over, fear of being left behind, and a fear of being caught lacking by using your basic human intelligence. I have two reactions to this.
First, this being left behind idea is a myth. There’s always time to catch up with any new technology, otherwise people born today are forever lost. That just makes no logical sense. Showing caution and reason with adoption of a technology doesn’t make you a Luddite.
Second, today’s generative AI is not actually intelligent. It’s a parlor trick of text generation. Yes, it’s powerful and you can do some amazing things with it, but don’t be fooled. It’s not intelligent. Your human intelligence is still—and likely will be for some time, maybe even forever—superior. Don’t neglect building it up and learning to trust your own judgement and intelligence. I can guarantee you the people building AI know this all too well themselves.