Evolving AI is crucial progress

by Kidus Walelign

OPINIONS WRITER

Education has recently banned the use of ChatGPT for all public school devices and networks, preserving the integrity of New York City public schools. Thankfully, Montgomery County Public Schools has recently followed suit, blocking access to ChatGPT on Jan. 3. While this only applies to one county, it is an important first step in maintaining academic vitality. Johnson said, “I think all schools should ban it because it’s quite hard for teachers to be able to distinguish between student-written or AI-written work, so it just opens up a path for cheating.” Unfortunately, just because ChatGPT is banned in schools doesn’t mean that students will not use it at home, highlighting a larger problem with the popularity of such to-use and helpful nology.

The rapid progression of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the modern world marks a milestone in our progression as a species. We have reached a point where we can invest money and time into creating sentience. Its impact on our society will undoubtedly be powerful, but it is unknown whether it will be largely beneficial or detrimen tal in the long run. Although many people are afraid of this new age of technology, AI could serve as a pow erful tool that helps us progress as a species in the future.

People have various fears when it comes to this new technology. In recent years, the advancements in AI have been startling, with the development of various tools, such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, demonstrating the ability to create eerily human-like writing and art. These advancements have left many authors and artists fearing for their jobs—if AI can reach the point where it can replicate human writing or art, they may no longer be needed. While it may seem real, these replications are entirely artificial, taking away the central beauty and purpose of art: the authentic representation of the human experience.

However, these fears extend past literature and the arts. According to Bulletin.com, since 2000, over 1.7 million manufacturing jobs have been taken over by AI and automation. “We have already seen a sharp decline in workers who are employed because they are being replaced by AI,” sophomore Andy Deng said. However, this idea that AI will steal our jobs is shortsighted. While AI may replace many jobs, it will also create many more. According to Bulletin.com, AI is predicted to create 97 million new jobs by 2025.

History is rife with examples of technology making jobs obsolete—it’s a necessary part of our scientific and technological advancement. For example, telephonists and telegraph operators had prospering net, cell phones, and automated switchboards, the market shrunk significantly. Now there are less than 20,000 operators. Clearly, the internet and cell phone have done much more for our society than these jobs would have. The same logic can be applied to AI. company behind ChatGPT itself, admitted that it “sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.”

There is significant concern that AI will somehow destroy our society. Movies like “M3GAN” or “Blade Runner” depict AI as creatures that bring endless destruction, failing to serve as tools that can benefit society, inciting deep fear in many people.

Junior Ahan Palanisamy said, “After seeing the versatility of AI, how they can play chess at a high level or write complete movie scripts, it made me fear that it is a potent tool that could eventually destroy humanity.” However, there is no evidence that AI will do that. These movies are simply based on imagination and have no bearing on reality. To oppose the progression of AI based on movies like these is not justified, because AI could serve humanity in so many ways.

Proponents of the software cling to the justification that it is an educational tool are dangerously incorrect. Freshman Brynn Johnson said, “I was testing it out with my dad once and we asked it to write a blog [post] about going on vacation. It started making stuff up.” As ChatGPT is often used to answer people’s questions, perpetuating the notion that it is an endless fountain of factual information simply facilitates the spread of misinformation.

In light of all the controversy surrounding the platform, the New York City Department of

While banning ChatGPT at school minimizes its use, it does not guarantee that all students will stop using it. ChatGPT poses a dismal fu ture for the academic progress of students. While its high ac cessibility and ability to facilitate cheating and the spread of misinfor mation will certainly give teachers plenty of headaches, the larger problems are going to be felt by students them selves. Students may love how ChatGPT helps them spend minimal time on homework, but the re ality is that if they learn to depend on robots for homework, they’re not going to benefit from their education.

AI could be used to our benefit, allowing us to avoid dangerous or menial tasks. For example, in hospitals, AI can be used to speed up diagnoses and take pressure off of overworked professionals. This would improve the efficiency of healthcare, which would save thousands of lives, especially when considering the current shortage of medical professionals. Additionally, AI can be used to complete dangerous tasks such as bomb defusals or deep sea explorations, reducing the risk of human injury. “AI may allow us to unlock the knowledge needed to advance our society while working for goals like national security, climate research, and biomedical research,” junior Advika Agarwal said.

Many people resent the onset of AI because they are scared of how it could change the future and the ways of life we have grown accustomed to. However, fear is an obstacle that humans must overcome in order to facilitate societal advancement. All change has benefits and detriments, but what’s important is that we find a way to mitigate the disadvantages in order to maximize all possible advantages. In the end, we cannot stay entrenched in stagnation because we fear change. AI will be an important step in the advancement of our species, so it is important that we accept it and the positive change it will bring.