Between Tool And Threat

Years ago, there was nothing like Artificial Intelligence, or maybe it existed, but people didn’t really know much about it. It wasn’t common at all. But today, things have changed. We now have many AI tools for different purposes. We have AI tools strictly for creating images, and we have the ones for writing and even editing images. This is the beginning, who knows how advanced they will be in the next few years? Since AI tools became popular, there have been many discussions, controversies, and even conspiracy theories. Some people claim AI will take over the world in the future and that it'll mark the end of humanity. Some are of the opinion that AI is a threat and not a tool, while others go with both.

In my opinion, AI is a double-edged sword. On one end, are the advantages, and on the other end are the disadvantages. I remember the first time I used ChatGPT. A lecturer in school gave us a very difficult assignment. We had limited time to complete it. After exploring the internet for hours, I gave up and came online to rant about it. I remember telling my friends on the Neoxian City Discord channel how difficult the assignment was. Luckily, one of them suggested I use ChatGPT. I didn't know what it was, nor did I know how it worked, but he sent me the link and I managed to navigate my way. I typed the assignment question and I was surprised by the answers I got. I was totally impressed.

School would have been a lot easier for me if AI tools like CHATGPT were available at the time. During my first and second years in the university, some of my lecturers would only give students materials and expect them to read and pass on their own. What is the essence of paying you when you are not going to teach the students? Well, some of these lecturers don’t care about the students, they only care about getting their pockets filled. It was on our shoulders to read and interpret the materials. Sometimes, the materials were too complex for our comprehension. If AI tools were available at the time, all I would do is ask it to simplify the notes. One of the ways AI helped me was to simplify complex notes for better understanding.

Also, one of the ways AI has helped me is by giving a detailed analysis of books. My course involves a lot of reading. They make you read like there is no tomorrow. Sometimes, it is hard to finish the books before the deadline. So what I do is ask AI to give me a detailed summary and analysis of the books. That way, I don’t have to read a 500-page book. All I do is get the plot summary, themes, and other important things. This helped me a lot, especially in my final year.

Moving on, AI has its disadvantages. In the academic field, it is making students lazy. Instead of thinking and exploring themselves, they now depend on AI to do all the work. A few months ago, a lecturer gave us an assignment. We were to read a book and do the proper analysis. The lecturer found out that more than 70% of the class used AI. I have also been a part of this. I don’t like using AI for my assignments. What I do is use AI to get ideas on how to go about the assignment but sometimes, especially when I know that the lecturer will not mark or go through the assignments, I do a full copy and paste without being bothered about the consequences.

In conclusion, AI is both a tool and a threat. In my opinion, the disadvantages do not outweigh the advantages, at least not yet.

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Thanks for reading through.