So Hank Green got caught using AI and itâs a whole huge blow up, and I really donât have much interest in adding to the pile on.
However, I do think this case is great example of what happens when smart people decide they can use these systems âresponsibly.â
Letâs put aside the plagiarism and the energy use for a second (not that these donât matter, but theyâre not relevant to my point at the moment) and pretend these systems were made with entirely properly obtained info and ran on only solar, but otherwise were entirely the same. If youâre a person, you might think âokay, Iâm going to only use this to come up with ideas for my next paper: Iâm going to do all the research myself and the writing, Iâm just gonna brainstorm topics.â
The thing is, even if youâre trying to limit use to just âbrainstormingâ the chatbot isnât going to limit itself to just brainstorming. You might ask it âwhat should I write about involving Greek historyâ and it may suggest âthe plague of Athensâ but itâs also going to suggest some âbasic infoâ on the plague of Athens that you might end up picking up and deciding your topic is. Itâs going to provide you with âresearch.â And even if you decide to check that research yourself, thatâs still setting you down a specific path you might not have picked organically.
And speaking of double checking its âresearchâ, fact checking is a time heavy process. Not only now do you have to read the original text the bot provided, but you also have to compare it line by line with the summary the bot provided. Thatâs more time than it would have taken to just read the article by itself. And with any time heavy task, people are going to get lazy. And in original research being lazy might mean skimming a paper or an abstract, chatbots allow you to be lazy without looking at the article at all.
And soon enough, despite telling yourself you were only going to use it for brainstorming, you have offloaded topic generation, research and eventually even drafting because thatâs what these bots are intended to do. They are not meant to serve as research tools or help brainstorm or serve as a bouncing off board: they are built to encourage maximum engagement. And that means if you go at them with the best of ethical intentions, they are built to tempt you to use them as much as possible, regardless of whatever line you drew in the sand for yourself.
Anyway, my main thought here is you are not smart enough to outwit the dopamine machine. It wants your attention and nothing more. Do not assume you can resist just because you know whatâs under the hood.
2087
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