By: Vrinda Chatterjee & Bani Chattopadhyay
Part 1: A Lesson in Being Human by Vrinda
In a rapidly declining society, we turn to ourselves for comfort. More so, we turn to clones of ourselves for a kind of twisted satisfaction. Artificial Intelligence is on the rise, an unstoppable plague that both older and younger generations alike are celebrating with unparalleled fervor. What is this mystical entity of our future, you may be wondering, and how could it possibly be the plaguing jeopardy I speak of?
The thing about AI that resonates with the masses is its portal into human self-consciousness. It is a door into an alternate reality in which we can immortalize ourselves. AI, in a way, allows us to live on in lasting form. When we look at a large language model and give it a command, we are given the exquisite illusion that we are, in fact, playing God. To be in idle, yet operative control—now isn’t that just a cardboard cut-out of utopia if you’ve ever seen one?
My personal distaste for AI stems not only from the passive, remiss human reality that is borne of it—enabling carelessness and breeding a new generation of mind-numbed, digitally-paralyzed children—but from its destruction of human creativity. Why commit to the strenuous journey of a lengthy project when a self-perfecting system can do it instead, and still allow you the gratification of results? AI ruins the idea of what it is to be a truly original, authentic personality. As a creative, I feel particularly upset by AI’s…casualness—the fact that most of us don’t find it disturbing in the least, that most of us think of it not simply as a tool, but as an embodiment to which we, the individuals, are both hosts and parasites, feeding on the simplicity of answers and simultaneously becoming irreversibly tethered to and dependent on them for life. It’s almost dystopian to me—seeing my peers make flippant remarks about using AI to write a last-minute paper or answer what appears to be a simple, interpretive question. We are robots—isn’t that what this is, a kind of merging? Is this really what we are now?
Not all symbiotic relationships are good. We need to think about what it means to be human, and if that’s something we see ourselves abandoning in the future.
Part 2: A Concern for Sustainability by Bani
If this sort of behavior and reliance on Artificial Intelligence is continued, it can lead to a slow demise of our society. In today’s generation, AI has become a recurring tool that nearly everyone uses in some capacity. Many people view it as a tool that’s “not a big deal,” but that’s where you’re wrong. Artificial Intelligence is a huge cause for concern in the future of our Earth. When you use AI, data centers have to be able to generate an answer to the prompt you’ve input. In such a high quantity, this leads to high energy consumption and huge greenhouse gas emissions due to the amount of water needed to cool these large computing units. With the rising popularity of AI, this is leading to detrimental effects on our earth, making it a growing accomplice to climate change.
In our school, we see teachers agreeing that AI is “not that bad” or promoting it for usage on assignments—practically turning a blind eye to its negative effects. It’s become an increasing issue, not only in sustainability, but also in current generations. AI has become more than just funny videos or simple prompt stories; it’s become a gateway to a lack of thinking and autonomy. Kids often use AI to explain the meaning of simple paragraphs or a video, answer homework questions, or even write their essays. The lack of critical thinking in recent generations is astonishing. If you rely on AI to do everything for you, do you even have free speech for yourself? Is your life purely reliant on a robot? Without AI, people don’t know how to write essays or read classical literature. Saying that AI is okay to use is just permitting this behavior, a lack of critical thinking, and technological reliance. Without critical thinking skills, your chances of being able to survive in the real world are considerably lower. You can’t rely on AI in your workplace or while taking a test. If you’re faced with a real issue, you can’t rely on AI to solve it. AI is no longer a small issue—the use of AI is a spreading plague that we have to find a way to combat. If this continues, we’re faced with difficult problems that we might not be able to solve. Not everything is temporary—including free thinking and self-autonomy.