When thinking atrophies

The end of 2022 was marked by the public release of chatGPT, the chatbot that changed everything. It could answer all questions about everything. It almost felt like someone was sitting at the back and answering everything. Before chatGPT the height of conversations chats was this below

this and other simple statistical based chatbots powered by the likes of API.ai and IBM’s Watson.

It didn’t take long for chatGPT to grow from word of mouth. It was free, easy to use, could seem to answer everything under the sun. It was a frenzy out there. It could write essay’s, come up with plans for your next trip, answer deep philosophical and Biblical questions.

It wasn’t very good at thinking but amazing when it came to generating content and rewriting existing content in a particular tone. This was the time when people and companies started to use this technology for customer support and also to churn out more content than ever before. I still remember my content writing friends who used to work for multiple companies, freelancing and finishing multiple posts within an hour by just using chatGPT.

Within no time (2-6 months), the adoption of GPT in everyday life grew exponentially 

And with this unprecedented rise in adoption, the cracks started to show. Students started using this to pass exams and generate assignments. Most emails started going through GPT. Tools started showing up to integrate GPT into every facet of your life. If it could be done using a computer – guess what, we have a GPT to “assist you”. 

Life couldn’t be any better. Convenience was at its peak. But was it ?

The reliance on GPT was growing to an alarmingly close parallel to what we saw in the movie – Wall -e

The machines tell us what to think, eat, say and do. The humans had given the AI complete control over what would be the best course of action, instead of thinking about it themselves. The same started happening everywhere. Everywhere you look, decisions are being made using chatGPT or its equivalent. Look at this reel that is meant to be funny, however I don’t think we are far from this reality – https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGgcrlcNcsF/

I started to notice the first signs of trouble at work, where interns or freshers who came to interview couldn’t solve simple problems like “Tell me if this number is a fibo number”. We even caught people using GPT during the interview. All the senior devs could see what this reliance on GPT was doing. The problem solving ability, or the critical thinking ability of these students and freshers was slowly being chipped away. Every time they faced a bug, an error, no matter how small it was – it went directly to GPT. 

So what’s happening? 

Well, according to this paper – Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt

Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels compared to other groups.

To put it simply, the brain is like a muscle. The more you use it for something, the better you will be at doing said something. And if you let it be for long periods of time, it will waste away and you will no longer be able to do that something as effectively as possible. It’s like being able to do 30 push ups but after 3 months of not doing any push ups, you can only do 5 or 10 now.

In the past, humans would think and machines would do the task. Now machines are thinking and humans are doing the task. Are we gladly giving away a part of what makes us human for a little bit of convenience or time saved?

What we wear, say, greet and post on social media is already governed by GPT. We are being dulled by our over reliance on GPT. I suspect a new type of consultancy will shine in the future – thought consultants, whose sole job would be to come up with new ideas that break the mold of whatever GPT is doing elsewhere in the world.

Are you using GPT to think for you? 

It’s time to stop. Take back the crown of thought. Be uncomfortable for a while. Don’t know the answer to everything. Be slow and intentional. I am worried about my and the next generation. Our brains are still being formed and we are hard wiring our brain to outsource thinking and problem solving.