HUMANS USED TO THINK.

At some point in my life, I believed that the world would end due to a robot apocalypse...

That was after watching a movie in which robots became sentient and managed to develop human emotions and sentiments including the will for rebellion and destruction. I had mind maps of all the places I would hide and possibly enough determination to survive long into the apocalypse.

Recently, I’ve come to believe that this fear of mine is most unlikely to come true; at least until 2035(according to I, Robot). For now, I am of the opinion that if human creativity dies before human extinction, it would be as a result of the misuse of Artificial Intelligence. I must agree with people who have suggested that if Artificial Intelligence were to destroy the world, it would be in a philosophical and not necessarily an apocalyptic sense.

An article in 2023 mentioned that Artificial Intelligence or the excessive use of it, can alter the way people view themselves and degrade abilities or experiences that people consider essential to being human. One such human experience that the misuse of Artificial Intelligence has already started to degrade is the art of making art (pardon my tautology‒ it sounded more poetic in my head), be it in the form of drawing, painting or writing.

We are currently living in what is soon to be another period in history in which humans completely forget the reason for which something was created and take advantage of it in all the wrong ways. If I were to give my opinion, the argument on whether A.I generated images is a new artistic movement or not, should not even be.

It’s important for us as humans to realise that Artificial Intelligence was made to assist us in tasks; not completely take over our creative fields and freedom to use certain punctuations such as our beloved em dashes. There might still be tells to recognise A.I generated images paraded as human paintings or artworks; but in the literary world, we can’t exactly certify the tells as most of them involve flagging punctuations that are generally common to writers or old-fashioned words which certain “etymology nerds” might genuinely include in their works.

In a less idealistic vein, it’s impossible for us to completely eradicate Artificial Intelligence from the creative space. 

It becomes an issue when A.I. works are paraded as belonging to humans and become a threat to “creative security”.

Also, outside the topic of art, I believe people need to try thinking again. There is a massive surge in the lack of comprehension skills as people refuse to read anything longer than a medium-sized paragraph. It’s quite alarming that a few people cannot operate on creative projects without the aid of ChatGPT or A.I prompts. We actually need people to pick up books again and start reading. It doesn’t hurt to try to compose something yourself or to analyse a book once in a while as well.

To add in a few references/recommendations:

·      The case for using your brain ‒ even if AI can think for you; an article by Celia Ford. I especially loved her use of the term ‘digital prosthetics’ when referring to how A.I was made for human assistance.

·      AI is an Existential Threat ‒ Just Not The Way You Think; an article by Nir Eisikovits and The Conversation Us. It allays fears of a robot apocalypse and talks about the destruction of the world by A.I in a more philosophical sense.