In case you missed it, I have a little AI Manifesto here on this blog. I do use AI for work, and often shill AI for work, and use it often on side projects.

That being said, I really care about using AI as a tool, rather than a replacement for my own thoughts and ideas. I think it’s very important to not default to laziness and just asking for the answer to something, especially when thinking a liiiiittle bit can get you there.

I’ve seen multiple people now who are really good at communicating online, but then when you converse with them in person, they freeze up, and it turns out it’s because they’ve been letting ChatGPT (or whatever they’re using) come up with responses for them in chats and emails. I know people who are afraid to write a professional email themselves now and they run it through their AI tool several times before shipping it. This type of dependence is the world we’re careening towards as a society at this rate, and it’s not a good thing.

It’s really tempting to say that you’re just “using the resources you have” when you use a simple query here and there, but your brain is the best resource you’ll have for the rest of your life, and you should keep it sharp.

Anyway, I might be saying the obvious, so let me leave you with this quote:

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

• Frank Herbert, Dune