At first, predictably, every college student is using ChatGPT in some capacity. How can you expect students to write extensive papers when they are burnt the hell out on scrolling social media? Of course, this is the next step from the college students who have no idea how to read texts.

This is nothing new, this is the techocalypse.

Then, less predictably, students are suing because they discovered professors are also using generative AI do everything from build syllabi to grading papers.

This will only get worse. The disease of “productivity,” the expectation that people should be doing more in less time for more people because we all have the tools to do so. The same tools also deliver distractions on a scale we have never seen before. Also, how good is a tool if the worker has no idea how to use it?

Don’t worry, it gets worse.

A study published by Carnegie Mellon (and (funded by) Microsoft), found correlations between ones competence with generative AI tools and their ability to think critically AND that person’s level of self confidence.

The better you are with generative AI tools, the worse you are at critical thinking. Tends to happen when you outsource your brain.

Critical thinking and self confidence go hand in hand. Go figure, when you have the skills to think on your own terms and draw conclusions, you feel better about yourself.

I cannot imagine a world where a cultural proficiency in using AI is a good thing. I’ve stated before that the contact list that comes with every cell phone has eroded our need and ability to remember 7 and 10 digit strings of numbers. It seems innocuous – recite this number from memory, get your best friend or pizza shop on the phone.

But just like the math teacher who promised that we would need to know how to do all of this one day, we have to wonder what else we lost when we no longer needed to memorize arbitrary sets of digits.