Go ahead and type the letter “c” in your browser right now. Just one letter. Focus your gaze on the top options. Is one of them ChatGPT? Even if it isn’t, that word is higher up on the list than it was a few years ago; now it’s seen as the pinnacle of technological advancement.
The rise of artificial intelligence mainly grew in secret, under the radar and unrecognized by the average person, as it was primarily developed in computer labs. Before their writing uses, these hyper-intelligent programs originally developed as large-language models for the purpose of list processing, mathematical theoretics and speech recognition. While these uses may seem to be unimportant to an average user, they became the background and foundation for where artificial intelligence is today.
Alongside the rampant growth and development of social media, especially among younger generations, the efficiency of AI has become increasingly apparent to the average person.
Circulation of these company titles— almost as if they’re brand labels— has spread throughout social media outlets, and their popularity boomed. Groups who are more vulnerable to the influential impacts of social media outlets became more susceptible to the lure of artificial intelligence—especially with the intrigue of efficiency. Whether you may be in advanced courses or not, busywork—assignments that are created specifically to take up time and are linked to a minuscule point worth— can be both annoying and time-consuming. As the school year progresses and spring testing arrives, assignments like these can seem unimportant, often leading students to utilize outside tools to complete them. I’m not necessarily arguing for the tedious and fully efforted completion of every single assignment thrown at you, but when artificial intelligence becomes a primary instinct for students, its detrimental effects are exponentially driven.
Even for seemingly unimportant uses, many AI sources are increasingly intriguing due to their quick and well-informed responses. One of these companies, ChatGPT, has built an empire on human dependence, only furthering this downward spiral. ChatGPT, a generative pre-trained transformer (hence the ‘GPT’), cumulatively expands its knowledge after every single response. Partnering this aspect with a highly skilled team, reinforcing its background coding, creates a seemingly unstoppable, ever-growing force. This growing dependency on algorithmic support is directly related to a staggering decrease in individuality, as when responses become more uniform, so do the destinations to which those localized responses divert. Though its responses may result from varied prompts, ChatGPT tends to respond in a certain style of writing: bland, monotonous and highly technical.
Another sign of how influential these algorithmic bodies have become is how one popular source has changed its core grammatical structure. When widespread languages grow in both user and vocabulary, they tend to address the new needs of verbal expression in the modern era, such as for ‘slang’ and acronyms. This adaptation now includes Artificial Intelligence and its rising use. ChatGPT, originally just a company title, has now become what is called a functionally convertible word: a base word that can be altered from a noun to become a verb, adjective or even a pronoun. This occurrence is something highly unlikely to be derived from a proper noun. In this situation, what we need to remember is that these are companies, not friends. Your prompts are never truly private, as every single word inputted into these programs is cycled back through, only making the program— and company behind it— more powerful, all while you lose your autonomy.
What these programs don’t disclose is that their monotony will drag you down with them. Their ease of use can easily cascade users towards dependency. When using artificial intelligence comes as a last resort, it is still possible to manipulate what is put through the algorithms. By adjusting these prompts, you’re able to curate a significantly improved response that is more specific and requires fewer additional prompts to finalize end results, effectively controlling the algorithm. These systems thrive off of monotony, their systems deteriorating the appearance of diverse voices throughout the internet
Another way to support the diversification of your AI usage is to put more research into the sources that you may use. Find intelligence models that agree with your motives and morals, as many algorithms are derived from unethical sources. OpenAI and Meta have both been involved in lawsuits regarding copyright infringement, making it obvious that these companies do not care where they get the information building their algorithms on, only how fast they can retrieve data.
When it seems that you must rely on technology for everything for the sake of ‘efficiency,’ stand out with originality— one step towards regulating the control of Artificial Intelligence. As advanced technologies become more apparent— and frankly unavoidable— it’s increasingly important to think about what can’t be found in the terms and conditions: when you agree to them, you lose yourself.
