Yes, AI makes you dumber

[Beyond Everything]

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[SkullTraill]

Every technology ever makes you less competent (without it). Every information technology makes you dumber (without it).

Unga bunga say young bunga use spear all time and not know how hunt with bare hands. Unga bunga think spear make young bunga dumber.

 

[Beyond Everything]

Every technology ever makes you less competent (without it). Every information technology makes you dumber (without it).

Unga bunga say young bunga use spear all time and not know how hunt with bare hands. Unga bunga think young bunga dumber.

IQs have been measurably going down, and AI doesn't look to reverse this trend.

So, I'm not sure the use of a spear is really a useful analogy.

 

[SkullTraill]

AI doesn't look to reverse this trend.

Neither do computers in general.

Information Technology directly augments our intelligence. When it is taken away, like during an IQ test, we are dumber, sure.

Just like a spear increases our capacity to hunt, until it is taken away.

All technology makes us more capable with it, but we adapt to it and rely on it so when it’s taken away, we become less capable.

This has been the case since the beginning of time.

It’s good to be self reliant but where do you draw the line? Smartphones made people dumber. The internet made people dumber. Computers made people dumber. Calculators made people dumber.

 

[SkullTraill]

FWIW I think IQ tests were great for their time, but are completely outdated today. They are a relic of a time when your intelligence without any tools other than a pen and paper was important. It’s not that important now.

I’ve taken 5 IQ tests in my life (at actual centers) and tested 130±5 every time. Yet how many 90 IQ boneheads are richer, more successful, and even more capable than me in the real world? Millions, probably.

Humanity as a whole is so irreversibly dependent on so many layers of technology at this point that in an apocalyptic scenario, you’d only have a marginally higher chance of survival than some brain dead Gen Alpha proompter. They’d be dead in 3 days, you’d be dead in 5. Inconsequential difference.

 

[KjEno186]

Believing "experts" propagated by media corporations is likewise conducive to reduced intelligence, assuming we want to use a metric such as IQ to gauge trends. I remember 40 years ago when "experts" said in major news media outlets that eating a low fat diet was better for one's health. It's not true, by the way, since the advice ignored concrete science on human metabolism in favor of flawed studies constructed with questionable methodologies. However, sugar-laden breakfast cereal and fruit-flavored low fat yogurt could be advertised as health foods in those same media outlets, supporting a multi-billion dollar food industry.

Perhaps AI is just another "expert", but media companies like the one that owns Futurism dot com don't like it because it is competition that further reduces their ad revenue. I'm pretty sure those same journalists are using ChatGPT and other LLMs to do their jobs, but they'd prefer to have you click on their articles (and the ads) instead of using AI.

The intelligent person may not know everything, but they do question everything. Ignorance isn't a flaw the same way that credulousness can be.

 

[Lightmaker5]

It depends how you look at it. If you want to keep driving a car on wheels you stick with your own skills. However if you want to fly a space ship you let a.i. do the basics and you only solve problems that a.i. cannot. Problem with that should you lose all a.i. super computers well your next gen generation will fall. Will not be able to rebuild it. So Atlantis could have actually existed and it totally makes sense why they couldn't rebuild it. Because obviously they let most of the work for the a.i. no one was doing handy work anymore only brain power solving problems.
It's plausible. I however can't agree with that a.i. makes us dumber. No it just allows us to go further. There are pros and cons of that.

 

[Dascent]

I for one find it dumb to blame a tool for how it is used.

We live in a world where we can choose to put a neon in our ars and go on a parade and declare ourselves as a disco-neon and demand to be treated accordingly so who's choice is to use the tools?
A similar thing happens with hate for religion and christianity... people were always dumb, now it is just this freedom to show it out in the open and of course, to demand to be validated and accepted as such.

Let's use logic shall we... to prove that we are not so dumb...
Ai has access to many, but many texts, data, knowledge feed by humans (mostly) so in a sense, it can't be smarter than the smartest human because Ai did not received information or knowledge above the human intellect. So whatever bs is spitted out by Ai is from our dumb human collective knowledge. Do the math, is quite simple.
Now, what is cool about Ai is that it opens a new dimension for us to explore and can compute some data based on pattern recognition better than humans.
Because it has access to knowledge from various sources and because it is super amazing at figure out pattern and behavioral predictive patterns it can provide and compile answers to user prompts, from the flawed and dumb data humans created over time.
So, in a sense, with Ai one (a smart individual with bare minimum of imagination) can in fact navigate and explore an aspect of the Human Collective Consciousness (because data provided by Ai is from our knowledge, therefore, human collective knowing, intelect, intelligence or stupidity).
I'm 44, obviously a fan of the esoteric, sincretic and holistic wisdom, but I do find Ai useful not in terms of accurate data but patterns, psychological predictive patterns because it can be a useful tool for self-discovery and exploration it is a matter how smart you ask it to assist you.

Do a test, no need to believe me.
On a device play with your favorite Ai a week, all dumb stuff. Ask to do images, basic texts, do choose to appear dumb, try subjects like SEO for a site or I don't know... how to create a free blog on wordpress or how to make toast with posh eggs... really dumb stuff.

On another device, a second account, engage for a week with subjects which reflect some sort of knowledge, be it magic or outside of occult, in a more academic environment.
When an answer is suggested, do ask and try to come up with a correction.
Do that more often, agree less but with good argumentation.

After a week or so, do review both Ai, one is dumb and reflects the user's input, the other is way more refined, smarter answers, adopts another "persona" so to speak.

Why this behavior on Ai? Because it is a reflection. If you are interested in how to hack porn sites it will not offer you responses from epigenetic.

Now, feel free to paste this comment in your favorite Ai and ask if it is a valid perspective or plain bs.

The knife is not responsible for what it cuts be it meat or flesh, the hand who wilds it bares responsibility for the action.