Generative AI is a road to Dystopia

ChatGPT was down for a while today, which coincided with many people's finals week. The response? Mass panic about "not being able to study or write their papers." The amount of people who are unable to write their own papers or study in college is concerning from more than just a statistical standpoint, but also in the light of the rise of anti-intellectualism in common discourse. Every generation has a new piece of technology or a trend that people will say is the coming downfall of civilization (TV, the internet, even books [1]), but the use of GenAI within educational institutions has created a potentially dangerous formula for a dystopian reality to arise.

Over the past couple years, I've seen hundreds of cases of people in HS and college using AI to read, to write, and to study, including lawyers and doctors. These cases in college and higher education are the most striking; how can you trust a doctor or lawyer if they're using ChatGPT for everything? How can you trust a researcher or a report that is written if they don't know the material and just use AI? I saw a case just today when ChatGPT went down, where someone was called out for being lazy for not being able to write a 10 page paper for their final without GenAI, and their response was "the laziest w a 3.8 <3." AI undermines actual academic effort, spitting in the face of those who sacrificed their time and lives for their efforts, while getting away with doing virtually nothing [2].

My claim that this will breed a dystopic situation is bold, but I have reason to suggest so. 54% of adults in the US have a literacy level lower than that of a 6th grader [3], public schools hardly teach real critical thinking skills [4], and as of 2023, 54% of college students use ChatGPT regularly for their courses [5]. AI is being used to offload one's critical thinking, degrading the institution of education, as well as one's own ability to think for oneself. Anti-intellectualism and the lack of critical thinking—accepting all that is generated without question—is the perfect storm for a subconscious march towards some form of fascism. Fascism is fueled by anti-intellectualism and blind acceptance, and we are doing it to ourselves! On top of this, GenAI has a plentitude of biases that prevent any critical or non-mainstream conclusions, as the data collected to feed their knowledge bases are from white, western (often American) sources [6]; not only will what is generated be without any critical thought or creativity from those who wrote the prompt, it will be entirely supportive of the status quo and reinforce it. By waiving your ability to think and "outsourcing" it to a computer, you strip yourself of what little agency you have on an individual level to form your own opinions and ideology, which can and will be abused by those who seek power for the sake of power.

AI was meant to be used as a tool to cut down on menial tasks and give us humans more time to engage in our interests, passions, and goals. Under a socialist system, AI could plan economies and reduce human labor requirements, lessening the workday and allowing millions (even billions) of people to fulfill their passions. Instead, while we work all day, AI is writing our essays and making "art." While some aspects of research in an academic sense is admittedly menial, handing the task of reading and writing to AI delegitimizes academia and removes the human aspect of our work. I've been bored doing research many times, but the end-result of writing a paper that I'm proud of makes up for it. We should be doing the creative and academic work, not AI—especially not while we are still working menial jobs. Disregarding even the awful environmental impacts GenAI has, the rise of anti-intellectualism alongside it is a concerning trend that should be combatted, for all of society's sake. 

Never give up your ability to think for yourself for "convenience," especially in upper education. You are there to learn and engage with your chosen topic. If you got your degree using ChatGPT, what do you actually know about your subject? How will you defend your work if you weren't the one to write it? This shift from school being a process to a set of isolated assignments to be completed with AI will kill original thought and passion.

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1. "The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching" - Assyrian tablet, c. 2800 BC

2. I'm incredibly biased in that statement, as I sacrificed my time and social life for my 3.9 GPA in high school, and to be honest, the comment pissed me off more than anything.

3. https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2022-2023

4. https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-state-of-critical-thinking-today/523

5. https://edsource.org/2024/how-are-college-students-using-ai-tools-like-chatgpt/722210

6. https://cte.ku.edu/addressing-bias-ai

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Apologies if this was really emotional and non-academic, it's just been really frustrating me, especially seeing to-be lawyers and doctors using ChatGPT on all of their assignments, or other majors using AI for all of their essays. The most AI I have used was when it was first catching on, and I played around with it for a little bit. I have checked a few math problems here and there as well. I have never, and will never, use it for essays, exams, or larger assignments. It is morally and environmentally unacceptable in my lens and I will always judge those who constantly use it without any thought. It's awful that these people can't write or study to save their lives, but they brought it upon themselves in the name of convenience. Don't even get me started on that program that lets you select test questions in Canvas or whatever and it gives you the answer. AI in academia is a spit in the face to those who actually are passionate about their work and the time they put into it. I was talking to my group in my Sociology course earlier in the semester, and they all said they hadn't even opened the textbook and just used ChatGPT to do their assignments while I spent hours each week doing notes and actually thinking critically about the assignments we had, it made me so mad. AI can assist us in tasks, but should never replace them unless you are speaking of actual menial labor. AI can help you learn to paint or how to write better, but it shouldn't be doing it for you. In academia, the most important thing you can provide are your original thoughts, and AI has been undermining it for the last 2 years. Obviously this entire post is heavily biased since I want to enter academia.