Recently, I was given the task of preparing a talk on a familiar top. This spurned a few ideas. These ranged from teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) to motorcycles. There were also a whole host of things that involved me, or seemed to form part of my identity.
Then the topic of AI came up, this was something that had it all. It had an ethical dilemma statistics indicating a trend and everything in between. It also does attract pseudoscience, disinformation and even conspiracy theories. The concept of Terminator does spring to mind when discussing AI.
Artificial intelligence does present concerns. The biggest is perhaps that it encourages laziness. It will also impact the job market. Because the other concerns around disinformation have been resolved by AI rather than exacerbating it. Go to any search engine. Search conspiracy theories. You will find a host of links to social media posts. But ask AI and you’ll get the air of caution, and to be aware of the dangers of spreading disinformation.
This raises the question, is AI the solution? Is this be where we actually bring society back down to earth. We live in a world where even the US presidential candidate is notorious for spreading disinformation. We don’t need to mention his name. This is certainly a good thing.
It isn’t all good news, there are some drawbacks. We are becoming increasingly reliant on AI not just for those dull repetitive tasks but with writing. Tools like Grammarly who’s usage has become common place. In time, we will lose that essential knowledge of our language.
We need a sense of balance. History shows certain techniques and practices can stay lost in time. We must continue to practice them or understand the importance of learning. We only have to look at extinct languages to understand when something isn’t practiced it can be lost.
Perhaps what we need is a sense of balance. Something that acts as that subeditor, who is also a teacher. This would be ideal for small businesses. They can automate tasks that are mundane. It brings knowledge rather than aimlessly taking it through our own laziness.
Yes, I could have simply asked Google Gemini to write me an article. This would be a little cold and detached. But Ai can help write the article. It can point out the errors and overly long sentences. This effort is not just to write better copy but, to learn how to write better content.
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