AI Side Effect: Some of the Seven Deadly Sins
June 25, 2025
New technology has been charged with making humans lazy and stupid. Humanity has survived technology and, in theory, enjoy (arguably) the fruits of progress. AI, on the other hand, might actually be rotting one’s brain. New Atlas shares the mental news about AI in “AI Is Rotting Your Brain And Making You Stupid.”
The article starts with the usual doom and gloom that’s unfortunately true, including (and I quote) the en%$^ification of Google search. Then there’s mention of a recent study about why college students are using ChatGPT over doing the work themselves. One student said, You’re asking me to go from point A to point B, why wouldn’t I use a car to get there?”
Good point, but sometimes using a car isn’t the best option. It might be faster but sometimes other options make more sense. The author also makes an important point too when he was crafting a story that required him to read a lot of scientific papers and other research:
“Could AI have assisted me in the process of developing this story? No. Because ultimately, the story comprised an assortment of novel associations that I drew between disparate ideas all encapsulated within the frame of a person’s subjective experience. And it is this idea of novelty that is key to understanding why modern AI technology is not actually intelligence but a simulation of intelligence.”
Here’s another pertinent observation:
“In a magnificent article for The New Yorker, Ted Chiang perfectly summed up the deep contradiction at the heart of modern generative AI systems. He argues language, and writing, is fundamentally about communication. If we write an email to someone we can expect the person at the other end to receive those words and consider them with some kind of thought or attention. But modern AI systems (or these simulations of intelligence) are erasing our ability to think, consider, and write. Where does it all end? For Chiang it’s pretty dystopian feedback loop of dialectical slop.”
An AI driven world won’t be an Amana, Iowa (not an old fridge), but it also won’t be dystopian. Amidst the flood of information about AI, it is difficult to figure out what’s what. What if some of the seven deadly sins are more fun than doom scrolling and letting AI suggest what one needs to know?
Whitney Grace, June 25, 2025
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