ChatGPT wants to do it all for you.
ChatGPT wants to do it all for you.
Whether it’s craft a workout, create a delicious new recipe, or plan a weekend trip with your sister, the AI system is there to give you a bullet point list of everything you need to know and do. ChatGPT has put out several ads over the past few weeks, and the message is clear: The tasks that people have performed since the dawn of history no longer need to originate from your own brain. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even went so far as to say ChatGPT might be necessary for child-rearing.
Altman said on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that ChatGPT has been vital in helping him raise his own son.
Altman admits that people have been raising kids without talking computers for generations, but his statement is indicative of a growing assumption in an AI-saturated world, which is that we should no longer be forced to think about how to do fundamentally human activities. Applying our own mental acumen should come secondary to dependence on a machine.
This sort of thinking assumes that modern people are no longer intelligent enough to do the things that former generations easily managed. In my own view, depending on ChatGPT to plan a weekend trip with your sister is a bit of an insult to the familial bond. If I had a sister, shouldn’t I know her well enough and put in the time to figure out what kind of trip she would like?
This isn’t to discount AI’s usefulness in certain areas, but OpenAI is sending questionable messages about their product’s range of utilities through these advertisements. Just because we can use this technology in all sorts of ways certainly doesn’t mean we should. If we depend too much on AI, we may find we can’t function without it. Your mind is worth more than that and is much more capable than OpenAI is giving it credit. That doesn’t entail we shouldn’t read up on how to parent or consult wise people for advice. But to lean entirely on a computer shows how shorn our relational ties truly are.
