While many technological advances are difficult to avoid, it is important to recognise the risks of becoming overly dependent on AI-powered tools. Overreliance can lead people to delegate even the most basic forms of personal communication, including highly private conversations, to AI.
In its variety, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the moment leading as the fastest-pacing technological marvel. In such a short time, it has evolved into a functional tool in most human affairs and activities: education, health, art, sports and games, information technology, security, research, manufacturing industries, etc.
In some areas, efficiency and speed brought about by AI are appreciated, while in many others, a downside is noticed. First, the diminishing quality of human skills, which were in the past more diversely productive, given the natural flow of human capacities after engaging in a certain area of specialty over a long time. This is now referred to as skills atrophy.
Secondly, users tend to create a dependence on AI even for simple tasks that they previously managed without any difficulty. The temptation to prompt AI chatbots is overwhelming given the ease of getting suggestions, and in some cases, final results upon a prompt.
Think of letters, academic papers, images, videos, reports, social media write-ups, made completely or mostly by AI, which are sometimes not even edited. There is something missing in these; the human agency, which adds value in making solutions to be “human solutions.”
Going deeper, today’s discussion is on the incorporation of AI into personal chat apps, where a user gets unsolicited prompts asking if AI can summarise messages, or reply, or if the user wants to search for something in an embedded AI portal right there in the chat app. This comes at a moment when many people are already feeling overwhelmed by the AI slop all over the internet, especially social media, where not only that the content is AI generated, but there are also endless AI prompts underneath posts that anticipate random questions about the posts. There are now also AI bots replying to messages and comments, and doing a kind of customer service work.
As young people especially get more and more attached to AI, building dependence on it, having it integrated into regular personal chat apps is adding salt to a wound, especially as many have a struggle in building relationships and have clear personal communication.
Today, according to research, most young people who are exposed to communication technology are said to have been cognitively affected by the use of the internet, gadgets, and now AI, to the extent that some researchers suggest that the current generation of young adults (Gen Z) is the first generation ever to be cognitively outperformed by the previous generation, that is millennials; especially in areas of memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function, and general IQ. This foretells a disaster for the generations after Gen Z, given the rapid changes and the effects already evident on the ground.
Beginning from millennials, the generations ordo successivus, due to early exposure to digital technology, are referred to as “digital natives,” using the words of Marc Prensky, an educational technologist. We are “natives” because the digital world is the only communication world we know; we have been exposed so early to the gadgets, internet, and now AI.
The waning of the quality of communication entails, first, less engagement in the communication process and the message being communicated. Where one only reads a summary of messages, there are chances of missing out on emotional depth, empathy, fundamental personal voice, nuances, and contexts, and where one responds with AI, there are chances of communicating what is not genuinely from the person, even though it may sound “smart.”
As most young people (Gen Z)spend about nine hours in front of a screen daily, they are affected by that exposure in terms of attention span, human formation, general character formation, and capacities for communication and adaptability in the real world. Relationships are not built through faster communication, but through deeper ones stemming from real personal experiences, however imperfect they may be. Research suggests that around 40 percent of educated Gen Zers across the world struggle with handwriting, a basic functional skill.
This means they cannot express their thoughts effectively on paper, as clear handwritten expression depends on writing fluency. In the US, about 50 percent of high school graduates are “not prepared” for college-level writing. It is worth noting that the decline in writing skills goes hand in hand with a decline in reading and comprehension skills.
While most technological updates are difficult to shut down in the devices, it is important to be aware of the dangers of over-indulging the AI embedded technology, such that we delegate to it even the very basic function of personal communication, and the very private content thereof.
Moreover, in most cases, data processed through AI servers is also used to train AI frameworks. It is therefore worth reconsidering the practice of giving away one’s real-time personal information and experiences for that purpose. We must look at AI as a reality that is both functional and dangerous so that we can use it with care and prudence.
Shimbo Pastory is an advocate for positive social transformation and a student of theology at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
