Artificial intelligence is not a fortuitous invention. The quest for machines that can aid humans in performing calculations dates back to more than 2000 years ago. From the invention of the abacus to the slide rule, humans have always yearned for contraptions that can make calculations easy.
Ease of performing calculations motivated Charles Babbage to conceive and partially build the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine is considered a precursor to modern computers. Charles Babbage found the complex calculations required to create tables for navigation tedious. He set out to build steam-powered machines to make calculations easy.
Many years later—in the nineteenth century—Alan Turing conceived and dilated upon the idea of creating an intelligent machine.
The Invention of Generative Artificial Intelligence
In 2022, the dreams and efforts in the days of yore culminated in the invention of generative AI that uses large language models (LLM) such as ChatGPT. Since then other AI chatbots have been created, including Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, etc. Using ChatGPT and similar generative AI, one can generate essays (in my opinion, they are mostly soulless) and solve complex mathematical problems. This sounds great—indeed it’s great as it represents a computational and technological feat—but there is a downside.
The Downsides of Artificial Intelligence
One of the downsides of AI is the gradual decline of critical and analytical thinking. To all intents and purposes, we beginning to outsource our thinking capability to machines. In essence, there is a brain drain from humans to machines.
I will buttress my view with a factual example and lived experience to disabuse the minds of those who may think that I am an anachronistic reincarnation of the 19th century Luddites who were alarmed that machines could be used for weaving, and thus feared that their livelihoods were endangered.
Three months ago, I asked a group of twenty high school students to convert 125.65 in base ten to a binary number. Only one student solved the problem correctly. On the same day, I asked another group of twenty-two students in the same grade to solve the problem. Twenty of them who submitted their notebooks did the calculation correctly. However, I noticed that they used the same method and their answers were identical. The difference between the first group of students and the second group is that the latter had access to the Internet and used ChatGPT. I called the students to explain their solution to the problem to me; none of them could explain it.
Conclusion
Whilst AI is a powerful tool that will arguably advance the frontier of knowledge, and thus create a superintelligence in many fields of human endeavor, it will lead to a decline in critical thinking and intellectual lethargy.
