Even if you’ve never opened ChatGPT, you’ve had far more experience with AI than you realize. Whether you use a grammar checker, talk to Siri, or use a GPS, you’re utilizing Artificial Intelligence. As AI becomes a bigger and bigger part of our society, it makes you wonder- is this something we should be worried about?
For decades, we’ve been having this same discussion. Where is technology going in the long run? We’ve come to different conclusions through the years, many people believing that a sentient kind of technology would eventually take over the world. With the development of Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1950s, this idea became more and more real. Even if you don’t believe that artificial intelligence will overthrow the human race, there are still concerns about the growing commonality of AI. It’s not the looming threat of robots becoming sentient- it’s how seamlessly they have begun to take the roles of actual people.
By 2030, AI is projected to have replaced up to 300 million full-time jobs. (Talmage-Rostron, 2024) To say that’s extremely disturbing is a gross understatement. To think that how millions of people make their way in the world will be stolen from them by some smart robots is alarming. While spellcheck is nice, is the use of AI truly worth the cost of thousands of people’s livelihoods? Different technological advances, not just AI, are also helping to replace other jobs. Even if we don’t think to notice, suddenly there’s a self-checkout at the supermarket and you’re ordering your food off a touchscreen when you go out to eat. Such small things, right? But those are supposed to be real human jobs, aren’t they? As technology becomes more advanced, it is changing how we work and make our livelihoods forever.
It’s not like our lives aren’t way easier. Even as our way of life is drastically changing, we can become more educated than we ever would have in the past. Information is accessible at the click of a button. Our little digital worlds allow us to access information we never would have been able to. ChatGPT can answer questions we cannot even think of asking, and artificial intelligence can push the boundaries of all we conceive possible. What would have taken countless hours of searching is now available at the click of a button, making education efficiency far better than in the past.
That doesn’t mean that it’s all worth it. The availability of AI can make us lazy, and many are willing to sacrifice the development of crucial life skills to save the time it takes to write an essay. It’s not like the school assignments written by ChatGPT are foreign to us. Our generation is so used to having access to AI that writing an essay seems impossible. When I say that AI is taking over the world, I’m not trying to say that Siri is turning evil. I’m saying that the youth is so used to having access to different artificial intelligence that they are missing out on developing important skill sets. The reliance on technology is growing increasingly concerning as we grow from children into adults. What was once a random school assignment turns into an important work report, and soon we’ll realize that we never really learned anything in school, AI was the only one doing the learning.
The world as we know it is changing, and there’s no slowing it down. Every year, daily life becomes more and more involved in technology. The way our world functions has become more and more reliant on computer programs, not human intelligence. It’s ignorant to deny it- our world is different from ten years ago. Though artificial intelligence has existed since the 1950s, the increase in its capabilities in the last few years is amazing. If you just sit on the sidelines watching everything around you change, shaking your fist and yelling about how kids nowadays have no work ethic, you’re going to fall behind. Our world does not run according to us- change is inevitable, and even when it seems disastrous, it’s not always.
We can learn more, we can advance more, and more than ever, we can take advantage of incredible opportunities our predecessors never had. The most important thing to remember is: don’t let AI write all your papers. A robot is taking over the McDonald’s job you had lined up. In an increasingly digital world, almost anything can be done by simply using a computer program. To put in no effort is becoming easier, but the effort needed to succeed keeps increasing. The world’s a pretty crazy place, and if you don’t think for yourself, you won’t know how to navigate it. If we properly use the technology available to us, we can become a more forward thinking society.
