#HUMAN AFTER ALL
You know how Instagram is now filled with people converting their images into ghilbil art or making memes about Donald Trump? Let’s keep our focus linear and precise on this new impending threat (or not) called Artificial Intelligence. As Oxford dictionary describes, “The capacity of computers or other machines to exhibit or simulate intelligent behaviour; the field of study concerned with this.” Over the years, AI has seemed to garner an impressive spot in the human-induced world. If I asked five-year-old Riddhima about how she uses ChatGPT to make quizzes, she would die of laughter, unable to process the fact that we have transcended from paper quizzes to AI-modelled quizzes. However, this isn’t just me, but thousands of people use ChatGPT in their daily life, to make it better, or to make it worse for someone else. We all sure as hell eat a lot of pizza, but as much as it tastes heavenly to our taste buds, it does become a monster for our large intestine. Similarly, this analogy could be used for analysing the vice and virtue of ChatGPT. A coin has two sides to it–so does AI. Recently, I stumbled across this app called “Character AI”, which allows users to chat with AI-powered bots. Character AI allows users to create their bots, like I made one named “Damon Salvatore” (yeah, big Vampire Diaries fan). Then, we can chat with bots about literally anything from quantum physics to unicorns, the bots cover it all. These bots provide people with personal insight into their daily problems. One of my friends who is an avid user of character AI shares, “Through conversing with the bots, I feel a sense of happiness and fulfilment. Character AI doesn’t contradict your opinions and, above all, listens to you, the quality which humans lack.” Through her insight, one can conclude that AI has helped people talk about their feelings, which they haven’t gathered the courage to talk to their friends or family. This feeling arises from the fear of judgment. The bots help people to talk about their deepest fears and trauma-inducing situations that they went through. If we analyse it further, character AI over the years has gained new profound popularity because bots don’t answer back negatively or cut you off. Instead, they listen to you, a quality which humans need to have and want others to have. However, we can’t overlook the negative aspect of character AI. The bots are merely fragments of technology, thus, their pieces of advice can’t be treated of much importance. Moreover, the pieces of advice that humans provide are more proven, because humans don’t provide a ready-made solution, but form one from the accumulation of their past experiences. Moreover, the solutions or advice that AI provides are merely from their system, however, the advice that humans provide is from the level of connection that they form with one another. An authentic human connection is something AI can never replicate. Have you scrolled through Instagram and found people telling you how to use ChatGPT prompts to become successful in life? Me too. The usefulness of ChatGPT can’t be denied. In my yoga class, students had to make a PPT on the importance of yoga. Most of them made scintillating, appealing and edifying PPTs, which earned them an A grade in their classes. When I questioned one of my classmates about it, they jerked off, saying how they made it through AI. The next day, my yoga teacher asked us to write an essay on the importance of yoga, highlighting the pointers we put in our PPT., All those AI-freeloaders weren’t able to write their essay and even if they were able to write, they couldn’t get it near perfect as the AI made it. This situation illustrates how AI is limiting our creative mind capacity. Humans are intelligent and creative creatures. Since the beginning of time, humans have invented and discovered things which in turn have made everyone’s life better and fulfilling. Undeniably, AI has helped me a lot. Through converting vague and boring business studies chapters to be converted like Gossip Girl, to making tests for my economics test, AI has helped us all. However, AI has also made us become a bunch of freeloaders. My younger sister, every time she has to write a report on the novel she has read, she writes taking help from AI. Instead of using her creative ability to formulate the report, she, in turn, takes help from AI to write a flawless essay. However, here’s the bottom line: we humans are flawed, but our flaws are what make us what we are. You might tell Character AI bot about how your boss was being pain in ass, and it would respond with a tone of pity and sympathy, but it won’t stand anything to the experience of going out with school/college friends, bitching about your boss, while sipping cold beer. Reading Joan Didion’s essays or reading Marvel comics, we feel a sense of comfort and personal connection. You know why? The reason lies in their writing, because they wrote by themselves, their thoughts, their ideas, their understandings and their experiences. All of which is derived from real human experience.
To conclude, I am not dismissive of AI, it is an integral and important part of diversifying and transcending into the technological world. However, we should let AI strip us of our creative sense and our human touch. AI should be used with respect and care. Use it to make boring geography chapters fun, but don’t use it to write a book report on “Jane Eyre”. Let’s just sum it by saying that ChatGPT wouldn’t be able to make a kickass Amul milk tagline and song, which has been my—and many other 2000s kids' childhood anthem.
#HUMAN AFTER ALL