Written by Uday Sidhu
Photography by Quan Nguyen
Featuring Irene Cheung
What do you think about AI?
That was the question I asked my friends and colleagues. There were mixed reactions. Some said it made their lives easier; a couple complained that it was going to take over jobs and cause unnecessary problems. The reaction is hardly new; major technological changes have sparked similar concerns for centuries.
The biggest change I’ve noticed since the release of ChatGPT is how convenient everyday tasks have become. Tasks I once dreaded, like spending hours researching an assignment, fixing grammar, or checking my spelling, can now be done with just a few clicks. At times, it feels like having my own assistant.
Just the other day, I needed to fill out a tax form for work that required precise information. I asked an accountant for help, and he quoted me $100. So, naturally, I asked ChatGPT instead, and it guided me step by step through the process. However, I do have a bone to pick with AI.
While AI is an amazing assistant, it is a terrible artist and a bad creator.
I’m very fond of books and enjoy a good story after a long day of work or classes. But in the past few years, things have changed. While it’s now common to use AI to write an email, people are increasingly using it to write and even publish books or articles. The use of AI in art has given rise to what I call “armchair artists.”
The problem, however, isn’t AI itself. It’s that people don’t realize AI cannot create anything. It does not have the capacity to imagine or experience. When asked to create a piece of art, write a book, or write an article, it does not think, “Oh! It’s time to show my creative side!”. What it does is learn from existing human-created work and use those patterns to come up with something that seems new. To put it bluntly, it is basically a search engine with the ability to hold a conversation with you. While it may seem new and unique, AI still relies heavily on existing human-created material, often without attribution or recognition for creators.
Not only that, but you can’t always rely on the accuracy of the information. I have seen this happen many times in class. Students who were unable to finish their assignments or projects on time used AI to complete them, only to discover that the references were incorrect or some of the information was nonexistent. For example, last semester I was working on a research paper about the government’s role in agricultural innovations. I decided to use Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, to help me find supporting evidence, and it gave me five sources. The problem? Three of the five sources were personal opinions posted on Reddit.
One more thing I dislike about AI is just how easy it is to use. Many people have become dependent on it for almost everything. I include myself in that group.
Have a question? Ask ChatGPT. Want to write an email? Ask ChatGPT. The list is endless. That was the problem. I stopped thinking for myself. My creativity started to fade. Over time, that dependence made it harder for me to finish assignments on my own or even write a simple email. It’s a growing problem among people I know from work and college.
This doesn’t mean AI is all bad or that its disadvantages outweigh its advantages. What matters is how we choose to use it.
If I drove my car everywhere and stopped walking altogether, eventually even a short walk would feel exhausting. The same is true of AI.
We need to remind ourselves that AI is just another piece of technology, albeit a remarkably advanced one. It can be incredibly useful or potentially harmful, depending on how we use it. We don’t need to reject AI—we simply need to find a balance.
