Artificial-ly Intelligent

By Tejjal Spandanaa

As the abbreviation indicates, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence – “our other brain”.

When discussing AI, the first thing that comes to mind is ChatGPT. Like the name suggests, Chat GPT is as easy as chatting with someone who is very intelligent and has an answer to every question. Unlike Google, where we type a question and we get many links/paths to the possible answer, Chat GPT instead gives the direct answer itself. We can also ‘ask’ ChatGPT to restrict the answer to ‘300 words’/5 lines etc. ChatGPT is like that one smart friend we have who helps us with our assignments . AI opens a world of limitless possibilities.

ChatGPT is very much like us, it also gets fatigued with excessive input to its brain. Imagine trying to learn a semester’s worth of syllabus on the night before the exam. We stuff all the content at once. During the exam, we feel fatigued, and we feel heavy. The recent experience I had was while working on my college project and seeking assistance from ChatGPT. Suddenly, a message popped up saying, “Too many requests in one hour. Try again later”.

I figured – AI too has its own limit.

Technology has changed the way we interact with each other and has an impact on relationships. Reflecting on the past, we used to gather with friends and family to discuss movies or songs. In the past, when someone in the family fell ill, we would seek advice from elders on preparing herbal/natural remedies. But today, we simply search for review/remedies online on social media.

On a daily basis we talk to Alexa, use Maps for Navigation and shop for groceries and food online- spending more time with technology than with ‘real’ lives. My dad still remembers and take the pride of owning a Nokia mobile with antenna which he bought during late 90’s but technology is so evolved that my younger sister who has not even reached her 10th grade wants a Samsung New Galaxy Zfold5 series smart phone with 512 GB of memory. This clearly indicates that technology has grown beyond our imagination.

There are tools like ChatGPT & Dall-e which is making life much simpler. As a result of this we are losing out on experiences and learning. Most of the tests today are online. Take the example of math quizzes, before advent of technology one had to refer to multiple sheets of text book/notes to understand the steps involved through trial and error. With the availability of Search engines like Google the process of searching for steps/answers became easier. Now with AI the process of understanding is eliminated as we only need to copy and paste the answer, hindering genuine learning. While logarithm books are already dead, I am wondering what will happen to Calculators going forward.

In my college, we have coding tests every day. I see people around me (including me) just copying the whole question and asking for the answer either in Gemini or ChatGPT. Over time we have realized that if we follow this same method till the last it would be tough to crack the technical rounds during the interview. So, we took this as a learning and started solving it on our own.

In my opinion AI should only used like a tool and not a solution itself.As we look at AI, it’s not just about cool tech stuff; it’s also about what’s right and how we can work together with it.

· Think about healthcare. AI is doing amazing things there! Like, there are machines that can look at X-rays and find problems better than humans. And there are smart systems that can suggest treatments based on our genes, making medicine super personalized

· Like how we use a calculator to do large calculation even though we can do the calculation by hand, we should only use AI to save time and not build a dependency to the extent that we cannot survive without it.

· We can use AI to develop complex images and simulations to see how structures might behave without physically building such structures to save both time and money.

· In school, AI isn’t just about giving us answers; it’s about making learning easier. You know those apps that adjust to how we learn best? That’s AI! And it’s not just in healthcare and school; AI is everywhere, In our free time, AI helps us find awesome stuff to watch or listen to, like those suggestions on Netflix or Spotify. But, yeah, AI isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It can have problems, like being biased or taking away jobs. So, while we’re excited about what AI can do, we’ve also got to think about how to use it in a way that’s fair and good for everyone.

AI should be used efficiently, avoiding over dependency. There is no doubt that AI has become integral to modern life. Its role is significant, but it’s crucial to maintain a balance and not solely depend on it. It’s also kind of tricky, sometimes it can cause problems or make mistakes. So, as students, it’s up to us to be careful with it. We should learn about it, think about how it’s used, and talk about it with others. That way, we can make sure that AI helps us without causing any trouble. The future of AI depends on how we handle it, so let’s make sure we do it right!

That balance is what will help retain our natural intelligence and prevent us from turning into an Artificial-ly Intelligent person.

All views expressed are my own and not derived from ChatGPT