Ask HN: Is AI dumbing us down?

4 points by sarmadgulzar 3 days ago | 3 comments

I know that almost all technology is a double edged sword. When used correctly, it can elevate you more than ever possible before. Conversely, it can also destroy your ability to live a meaningful life.

Calculators allowed us to do math quickly but there were people who used to do everything by hand and “Calculator” used to be a job title.

Google mapped every single nook of the world and put it in an app but now almost no one knows the how to get anywhere without it.

Phones/social media allowed to us talk to almost any person on the planet but do I need to even spell out what it has done to our mental health?

But the thing is, all of the aforementioned things only made us reliant on technology in a few aspects. But AI seems to be this black box which can literally answer anything. On the surface it sounds wonderful that anyone can now learn anything but just try to extrapolate its effects a few years into the future. Will this become a tool like a calculator where it’s treated as a utility to achieve even greater things or will it actually make us stop thinking for ourselves?

Any thoughts, ideas, words of advice?

Bender 3 days ago |

Is AI dumbing us down?

It may be one factor. Cell phones especially in school are probably creating too many hormone disruptions, distractions and effective IQ drop. Most foods are toxic, extremely low quality and designed to cause addictions. The air in many places is toxic. Plastics everywhere. Polyfluoroalkyl substances are everywhere. People are on a lot of off-label prescriptions and we still don't fully understand what some of them do to a fetus. Unsocial media and politics is everywhere making us the most divided we have ever been. Too many three letter agencies taking bribes, some being government sanctioned at multiple levels. Global weather changes may be impacting people indirectly. Birth rates are dropping, sperm counts are dropping. I could probably go on listing more crap for a while but I still don't know what the character limit is but I can't blame all of that on AI.

AI will probably screw us up much like the way social media algorithms screwed us up, but exponentially greater once it reaches critical mass as it mimics human behavior and hacks our brains [1] in ways social media algorithms could not.

The great filter is just ahead. [2]

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi_effect

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

hahooh 3 days ago |

People are getting dumber for sure. They now expect an instant answer for everything. People no longer understand how systems are built or why they were built. Even worse, they don't even want to know because they never bother to look it up.

zhoBEENG 3 days ago | |

I too, long for the days of 5 years ago when people understood how systems were built. What a peachy time that was. People were so knowledgeable, curious, and engaged with the systems that defined their lives. I am glad you reminded me about those happier, erudite days, as I was almost struggling to believe that such a time ever existed.