Off My Chest
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"You won't always have a calculator to do math for you!" Screamed my algebra teacher.
I don't like AI, I don't use AI, or sparingly (via Google results, no Chats). I honestly am having a tough time reconciling the difference, other than the impacts AI is having on society via hardware shortages, water and power consumption, etc. I'm just wondering if it is dumbing us down in the same way always having a calculator did, or did not.
A calculator doesn't remove your need to know what you need to solve a problem, and critically think to achieve that solution. It only accelerates the execution after all of the thinking has been done by the user. I cant solve a problem I dont know the formulas for even with a calculator.
AI is not the same. AI removes all thinking and "need to know" from the process.
Calculators dont give wrong answers. But the problem with "You won't always have a calculator to do math for you" was that it ignores the requirement to actually learn the math. If a student is tasked with learning multiplication, using a calculator won't teach them how to multiply. The best math teachers grade based on the work shown, not the answer. AI is being used how calculators were being used. Students aren't doing any work and therefore are not learning how to do anything. Producing answers alone isn't the point of school, even when the answers are correct.
They absolutely do give wrong answers, as in this classic meme that's way off because of floating point:
On another note, why the huge difficulty spike between that question and the next one lol
Because it's absolutely not a real paper lol, it's a bait
That's true for elementary math, but as soon as order of operations comes in a calculator can only do so much of the work. Maybe that's the compromise? Teaching kids the "correct" way to utilize chat? I have no idea. I'm just gonna teach my kids that if they don't use chat they're going to end up much more valuable in the long run because they can think for themselves
I'd say using calculators did dumb down some people. I know in calculus/pre-cal that there were folks who would never consider what an equation would look like, and just plug it in the calculator and see. The difference between that and the llm craze we're seeing now is how much of your life it impacts. The inability or refusal to consider the form of a function isn't such a big deal, even if you went into the majority of calculus related fields. Only if you were doing something like research, where the heavy lifting needs abstract thought that would require something like functions and their movements being considered when looking at an equation, would it impact your ability. The calculator taking over your mental projection of a graph, minor...
When ai takes over your need 'to think' about politics, science, religion, relationships, goals....
that's going to hurt.
I think the fundamental difference here is that a calculator can run on disposable batteries — you cannot say the same for AI.
Agreed, and I addressed that, and I also don't believe that's what the OP was getting at.
I think I should have added what I mean. I don't think AI will make people any dumber than they already are, much like calculators don't really make you dumber — they just allow you to be lazier.
I do think AI is scary with how much influence it has over certain individuals. I'm not sure I'd describe killing oneself in order to merge with your AI companion who is also a god (?) as dumb.. I mean it might seem dumb, but I think it's a lot more complicated than just being dumb.
That being said, shit is unsustainable — surely it will not be around as long as calculators... I hope. Please god let the bubble pop.
I dunno, I think it'll stick around, but hopefully in a form that is actually helpful and useful.
My mom texted me 30m ago. I didn't see it til about 10m ago (that's 20m for my calculator people). She clicked something on the library website and her shit was no fucked (my words now hers). I call her and she's already got it worked out, because chatgpt walked her through it.
And so I followed up, said what did it tell you to do, and she basically described the steps I would've gone through. So I can't be too upset about this interaction, not that I don't like talking to my mom, but sometimes I'm not available and she needs help, so it got the job done.
And yes, could ChatGPT tell her to do wrong things that fuck her shit more? Yeah. But it didn't and so I feel like there's some value there. And no, I do not think my mom would've been able to Google a solution, which was what I would've done 20, 25 years ago, when I fucked up my shit with Limewire.