Human dependence on Artificial Intelligence
By Benedict Lam
In modern society, Artificial intelligence (AI) is a widely used tool in a lot of industries and sectors, including education, social workers, filmmaking etc. The widespread use of AI should indicate the technological advancement of human society. However, people started to be over dependent on AI and this could lead to negative results.
One of the most prominent sectors is the educational use of AI, which is especially evident is academic honesty of using AI when it comes to writing reports. According to the latest AI usage statistics from programs.com, over 90% of university students and 85-87% of educators use AI as an educational tool. Supposingly, these statistics should indicate an open-mindedness of people using different technologies to support educators and students. But a study published in Nature and ResearchGate in June 2023, the group conducted a research that indicates over 68% of perceived "human laziness" tends to be attributed to AI automation. Showing that not all people would use AI properly when encountering difficulties in their learning, they would just “lazinely” allow AI to complete tasks that require learners to think rather than think by themselves, emphasizing the dependence on AI in learners.
Nowadays, the function of AI not only includes educational support, they can also provide emotional support to patients who have mental illness. Simply just type in what the patient is feeling right now, AI can easily generate messages that a professional doctor could and talk to the patient to treat the illness in just seconds. Compared to those expansive doctors, the option of talking to AI can be a fast and affordable method to treat mental illness. In addition, talking to AI can conceal the personal privacy of patients that could further encourage them to treat those mental illnesses properly and effectively. Nonetheless, some skills or newly invented methods cannot be as updated as doctors. Thus, over-reliance on AI to treat mental illness may not only replace the doctors, but also lead to less positive competition between professionals as people tend to use AI rather than real humans.
In the filmmaking industry, it is also found to be over reliant on AI usage, demonstrated in the facial replacement technology, called Deepfake. This technology's prominent function is to capture the facial expression and appearance of individuals and copies them on body doubles. Although this technology can reduce the money and time that is required to cooperate with expensive celebrities, the company is still able to use those celebrities in their films, fostering the production rate of films. When a wider range of people start using it, the competition focus would shift toward the sophisticated use of those technologies instead of the authenticity and the creativity of the film, making films become less entertaining.
In conclusion, as technology advances, we should openly accept them to incorporate into our life to better assist us. However, we should always keep in mind that technologies, such as AI, aren’t the only thing that we need, we should always think before and after to make sure that we know what we are doing and it is our own decision to prevent replacement from technologies.