Busy work in school gets tedious. We all know that.
It’s understandably frustrating to get a bunch of unnecessary assignments, and actually taking all the time to do them is annoying – especially when it isn’t to prepare for a quiz or a test. In order to shorten the time taken on an assignment, students tend to use AI.
AI is beneficial in many ways.
Whether it’s used to generate ideas for a paper or just make it do the whole darn project, AI gets it done and gets it done well. Depending on the way it’s used, it can help students’ grades significantly. Even online, it’s common to see funny videos created through a simple prompt. Videos like this can even go viral and make money.
However, we have to realize AI has many, MANY negatives and the public usage of it is extremely unnecessary.
Artificial intelligence is making us dumber, and it begins in the classroom. Relying so heavily on the robot to do all the work all the time will just get someone nowhere. We cannot be so dependent on technology! It’s incriminating people’s creativity, problem solving, and impairs the ability to critically think. This is overall saddening seeing fewer students putting effort into everyday work.
Here are four reasons why AI is not worth it:
- AI contributes to climate change. The use of AI actually consumes mass amounts of electricity, raw materials, fossil fuels, and water. The data centers needed for AI consume about 800 kilograms of non-renewable resources, and also produce waste like mercury, chromium, and lead. This releases excess pollution into the environment, potentially contaminating water and soil.
- AI is not always right. It can make numerous mistakes in media literacy, simple common knowledge, and ESPECIALLY the assignments it’s forced to correct. It can be frequently wrong in solving complex problems, resulting in failure because it’s relied on so heavily. Not to mention, it is technically plagiarism.
- AI spreads misinformation. It taints the public eye as well. Although most of us have seen the deepfakes circulating on the internet, and have good enough judgement to know that it isn’t real, a few people may seriously believe some of this stuff. I’m not talking about a cat playing a saxophone, I’m talking about possible identity fraud, completely fake videos of public officials, and even causing financial troubles. We should NOT have to constantly question whether something is artificial intelligence or real news – it is PLAUGING the media.
- AI is killing jobs. Graphic designers, authors, data scientists, salespeople, journalists, and infinitely more are being put out of work. This is very dangerous, especially because AI can more than often be WRONG. If every profession is overcome with artificial intelligence, (even fact checking) false information would be circulating throughout the whole world without anyone to prove it incorrect. Eventually, already unstable economies could collapse due to mass unemployment.
To fix this, businesses need to figure out how to use AI as a tool. Instead of letting it take our jobs, we can use it to create new ones and put more people into work. Society can also help to limit the pollution it creates by using it in moderation.
Finally, the students at De Pere can also use AI as a tool. Rather than making it write a whole paper, it can be used to brainstorm ideas, or correct grammar mistakes. We all need to regain the skill to critically think, and it starts by taking a step away from artificial intelligence.
