A gym for human thought | in the age of AI

This is gonna be terribly off-topic for a frugal blog, so, you know, proceed as you wish. 😉

I am not the world’s biggest fan of AI.

I know there are amazing ways that it is being used; for instance, I heard a Freakonomics podcast about how researchers are using it to sort through mounds of data in their efforts to find new uses for already-approved drugs, thus providing affordable, effective ways to treat diseases.

I think this is a great use of the technology!

My beef with AI has more to do with using it for writing. I am sick to death of seeing social media posts, newsletters, and even school discussion boards filled with the inane, robotic sameness that comes from using AI.

I feel like I am reading the output of a machine, not a person (which is, in fact, the case). Once you’ve read a few AI-produced things, you can pretty quickly spot the “voice”, or really the lack thereof. As soon as I notice it, I am immediately bored, and I click away.

I want something real. I want something human!

So. I dislike being on the receiving end of AI-produced writing, but I also feel deeply concerned about what this is doing to our ability to form our own thoughts and then express them.

This is a skill, one that improves with practice (and conversely, dulls with disuse.) It is work to think about things, and it’s even more work to write those thoughts down in a way that effectively communicates those thoughts to other humans. But that work is what builds the skill.

I see people using AI to write emails, blog posts, newsletters, social media posts, announcements, and even thank-you notes.

(That one is especially wild to me, because isn’t a thank-you note supposed to express, from the heart, how you feel about a gift or service from someone??)

I know such casual AI-use is even more commonplace than what I’ve observed, because an interviewee on a recent Laura Vanderkam podcast suggested, as a challenge, that listeners try one AI-free day per week (one where they even write their own emails.)

I am a little disturbed that one AI-free day per week would be a challenge!

I also wonder: if we use AI to write all of our emails and posts and notes, will we lose some of our ability to communicate in person? Talking and writing both require us to organize our thoughts and then express them, so I imagine there’s a lot of cognitive overlap between the two skills.

We may be able to use AI when we write, but what will happen when, say, someone at work asks us for an on-the-spot update? Will it be hard to produce something without the AI crutch? I don’t know, but I wonder!

Writing as “a gym for human thought”

Last week, I came across an article about AI by Jamil Zaki, a Stanford professor. He compared the rise of AI to the time period when machinery became a common substitute for manual labor.

Because machines did our physical labor for us, our work became more sedentary, and we had to start exercising on purpose to maintain our physical health.

In the same way, if AI is going to do our thinking for us, we are going to need to exercise our minds on purpose, to maintain our cognitive health. Zaki says:

“AI has already allowed us to become cognitively sedentary, and that will only increase over time. But just as we must be responsible for our bodies in an era of office work, we must now keep our minds active. Writing is a gym for human thought we need now more than ever.”

Machines replaced a lot of manual labor, and as it turns out, machines often do the work better than humans. Still, physical labor is important for our bodies, which is why we purposely lift weights and use gym machines that accomplish no purpose other than increasing our physical fitness.

(Imagine how surprised our ancestors would be if they could see us working out!)

Similarly, AI may advance far enough to adequately replace human writing, but Zaki says we should still be invested in writing practice for our own sake. This writing effort is like a set of cognitive “reps”, part of what keeps our minds strong. And if we are not motivated to exercise our minds for the sake of others, we can at least do it out of self-interest.

Obviously, I write regularly, both here and on my Patreon, and I never use AI in any way for these posts. So, I know I’m taking my brain cells to the gym regularly.

But if you don’t have a blog, and you want to try hitting the cognitive gym, there are other options. You could journal. You could write letters.

You could try poetry, if that’s more your thing. And I suppose you could even write an email or two. 😉

Also: all of you who regularly comment here are working your brains! You read what I write, you think about it, and you type your thoughts out.

(And I hope you are not using AI for that. Ha. If I start seeing comments that say things like, “Measured. Mindful. Intentional. That’s not cheap — it’s frugal.”, I’m going to be suspicious.)

Tell me what you think! Are you concerned about the way AI will change our thinking and writing abilities?

P.S. I had to Google to find out how to type an em-dash for my faux AI comment up there. Ha.

P.P.S. I realize that not everyone is a writer; still, every human needs some thinking/communicating skills to function in life, and writing is a great way to practice those skills.