From schoolchildren using AI to cover each assignment to Studio Ghibli-style pictures created from AI, it is evident that the impact on our lives is massive. The burning question being: is the ever-growing existence of AI in our lives massively dulling down the psyche of our generation?
Creativity stems from individualized ideas. However, if we’re going through the realm of AI and copy-pasting AI-generated word vomit, do we have any time to think freely for ourselves and create art that we truly believe in? While the world requires us to constantly catch up, mass-produce assignments, and regurgitate the same concepts for marks and grades, we really must go towards an alternate route for learning and creating new art to enjoy life.
Environmental Implications
AI requires data centers that heavily increase the carbon footprint. While there is a requirement for AI, the increased carbon footprint is detrimental to the lives of human and non-human life forms. AI has also increased the global demand for water, as cooling down the CPUs in data centers requires it.
Loss of Independent Creative Thought
We need creative thought for ourselves as much as we need it for producing art. With heavy reliance on AI, studies have shown that there is an increased loss of decision-making and creativity in children. While there is an overwhelming burden from schools and teachers to produce assignments to show that the student has understood the concept, the rise of AI has made it easy to feign understanding, as it explains the same concept with the help of a prompt, making it easier for a student to portray that they understand.
Under heavy burdens, AI has made it easier to summarize a book and has made the creation of art accessible to everyone. However, without reading a book thoroughly—analyzing characters, scenes, and emotions—how can a person fully grasp the essence of a book? Without watching a play, how can you fully appreciate the effort of making up the sets and the portrayal of raw emotions?
Miyazaki, the creator of Ghibli, called the imitation of his drawing style by AI an “insult to life itself.” It is the input of effort, emotions, and crafting each expression meticulously that makes us appreciate movies and art.
What Can We Do?
For starters, with the ever-growing world, we must catch up and realize the importance of media literacy. Even though everything is available on AI, AI literacy and fact-checking information through multiple credible sources is a skill that is important for everyone. This is not a new issue—since the dawn of the internet, people have been exposed to all sorts of information. Now, more than ever, there is a major requirement for AI literacy.
Understanding that the implications of not verifying information lead to skewed conclusions, of not critically analyzing the material provided to us, and of simply relying on a machine that does not understand emotions, the closeness to the heart of the final product, and the minuscule nuances of each detail will always lead to something lost. Not understanding and analyzing the depth of the material closes doors on understanding the depth of emotions an author, a painter, or even a maker truly feels.
While this is added responsibility, spreading the word is extremely important. People relying on AI heavily for mundane tasks more often than not are unaware of the consequences. For a person who is overburdened with the tasks of the day, AI is a useful tool to help them get things done. And there lies the problem of society—we have so many things to do in a day and so many distractions that assigning tasks to AI is just getting them done quicker. And while, yes, it is helpful, it may be more useful in the long run if we adapt and make it easier for ourselves to do the things necessary with our brains. Because at the end of the day, evolution tells us: if we don’t use something, we lose it.