What Do We Lose When We Use ChatGPT?

Our Strange Addiction

About two years ago, starting university, I fell prey to the magical allure of ChatGPT. Much like those around me, trying to keep up with all the work, it was a nice (or even necessary) tool to keep my head above the water. When I simply did not have the time to read a text before class, it could summarize it for me. When I couldn’t come up with the specific word to use for an essay, ChatGPT would help me find it.

Before I knew it, it became commonplace to use AI, not just for me, but for most students around me. Nevertheless, I always scorned those AI fanatics– the drunken guy telling me ChatGPT plus really was worth the money, or the girl in my group project who seemed to be unwilling (or unable) to write anything herself. 

I always wanted ChatGPT to be nothing more than a quick fix, a desperate measure for desperate times. I personally drew the line at having it write any paragraphs for me, but admittedly, this line would become blurry at times. (Having AI improve your paragraph a little bit doesn’t count, right?) Desperate times were interpreted more loosely. 

Although it was certainly common in my surroundings to use AI for studying, and I was by no means as devoted as others, I often felt a faint feeling of guilt, as if I were cheating on a test or lying to a parent. However, once you’ve tasted it, the drug is hard to resist.

This addictive nature of AI became increasingly clear to me when I realized how eager my brain was to type in the letter ‘C’ in the search bar and open the website. Even though I was reproachful to it in theory, I felt dependent on it. This scared me and I decided to walk the talk. So, last summer I quit. A new academic year, a new start.

The Craving

When addicted to something, one often feels they cannot live life without their substance of choice– or, like the addicts-in-denial, they say they can but just don’t want to. To me and many other students, a life without ChatGPT similarly seemed unbearable or simply undesirable.

Nevertheless, most of us aren’t blind to the downsides of AI. We’ve heard often of its horrible environmental impact or have come across studies suggesting ChatGPT erodes critical thinking and harms human intelligence. Why, then, are we still using it? Why doesn’t the dessert lover quit sugar, knowing the risk of cavities and why doesn’t the meat-eater quit meat, knowing the abuses of the meat industry? Why don’t such perspectives make us quit our vices?

I cannot imagine it is simply a lack of caring. I suppose it is the power of our craving that makes us turn a blind eye toward the downsides of it. Through some cognitive short-cuts we manage to ignore or downplay them and carry on with our habit. And the more powerful the craving, the more likely we are to cave to it, despite these downsides. 

An alcoholic might have an easier time giving up meat than alcohol, knowing the downsides to both.  The craving for meat is feeble enough that seeing its downsides can convince him to quit, but the craving for alcohol is so strong that he does not quit, despite the harms caused by the bad habit, to him and others. The craving is so strong that a life spent abstaining from it seems unbearable.

If then, life without ChatGPT seems unbearable to many students, what is it that we so desperately crave? What is it that we want to be free from? The only answer I can come up with: effort. 

The Efficiency Cult

In our modern society, there are few things we value more than efficiency, productivity and results. We are conditioned into wanting an efficient life, into wanting to put the least amount of effort, time and money into something whilst achieving the best results. This capitalist mindset is ingrained into us from a young age and prevalent throughout our lives. We take the shortest route home, and we order our books online because it’s the cheaper or faster option. 

This, I believe, is the real addiction in our society. It is no wonder, then, that ChatGPT has quickly become so widely used. It is a symptom of this efficiency cult. We want results the fastest and easiest way and ChatGPT can provide that. If it can find a better solution to a problem, why would I bother trying myself? 

But what is the cost of all this efficiency? What do we lose when we use ChatGPT?

The Cost

As my first ChatGPT free semester comes to a close I can say I’ve been quite happy with my choice. Of course, after a long summer break, having to get back into academic life without any AI was not an easy breeze. The impulse to open ChatGPT when studying got challenging was still present and I admit that I did cave once or twice (but those really were desperate times!). However, after a short while of suppressing such urges, I quickly relearned that I am quite capable still without ChatGPT, which has been a reassuring revelation. 

More importantly, I relearned the pleasure of studying. Although laborious and hard at times, studying is way more enjoyable this way. Actually putting in effort to my studying and pushing through when things get hard makes the studying fulfilling. Because isn’t putting effort into something the exact thing that makes it worthwhile? Isn’t effort what makes life fulfilling?

Maybe I could easily graduate cum laude using ChatGPT, but what is the point of studying if a computer is doing half the work for me? I will have a degree, but will I be fulfilled by it? Unlikely.

In I don’t know how long, there will probably be some 3D-printer that can perfectly recreate our favorite paintings so we can admire them in our own homes. There will be an algorithm that can figure out what we want to eat so we are absolved from the work of deciding. There will be high speed trains that can take us where we want in a manner of minutes. 

But what is the point? What makes seeing a painting in real life so special is the fact that it is unique, that you are watching it in a certain atmosphere, and that you took the time to go to the museum to see it. What makes a meal fulfilling is not only the taste but the whole process of choosing and making it yourself. What makes travel enjoyable is the landscapes you ride through. If we outsource all effort to technology, what are we left with?

Using ChatGPT and choosing efficiency means giving up on effort and if effort, the process and work of it all, makes our lives fulfilling, then giving up on effort means giving up on living itself.

Final Note

I don’t really blame any ChatGPT user. It makes total sense that many students use ChatGPT. Pressures are high and when we find a tool that makes life more efficient, we take it. That is what we are taught. We aren’t conditioned to enjoy or value the task of it. We care about results, and the process to achieve those is only relevant in terms of how efficient it is.

And I know AI isn’t all bad. If it can detect an illness before any doctor can, for example, it is a desirable tool of course. I suppose in an ideal world, the computers are there simply to assist us in such cases where our human capacity falls short and to do the unfulfilling work for us, so we can wander outside more, paint, go see a film and do the actually fulfilling work.

But in our current society, such technologies are used for any and all tasks, indiscriminately, all for the sake of efficiency. And that is what bothers me, because it has the exact opposite effect of the liberating potential it has.

In the end, having quit ChatGPT has been hard, not because the work was too challenging, but hard on my being. Because whenever the topic of AI comes up now, all I can do is wonder how much will we give up for the sake of efficiency? How much will we lose? If we continue down this path, what will be left of us?