Conditioning by AI

May 8th, 2023

It saves time —

that was the gist of the conversation I heard today at work. A very interesting conversation and a little scary as well. My colleagues were discussing how easy and convenient it is to use business artificial intelligence together with ChatGPT to make amazing analyses and presentations. Something that would take hours and intense work can be done within minutes — you just put data in, specify what needs to be analyzed and how it needs to be presented, and ask for in-depth research for a particular point of the subject — and voila! there comes a business report showing the way to go about specific issues and it is presented in a professional but visually pleasing way. And top management can make decisions and be happy with the work done.

I was about to ask a question when another person asked what was on my mind — “and the analysis and conclusions? Are they correct? Did you check the output of the AI?”. There was a longer-than-expected pause and the meek response — “well, I was expecting the same results, so…”. And the subject was dropped.

I love technology, I use new gadgets and software all the time and I cannot get enough of all the new developments that make my life and my self-development and, in many cases, my work so much easier. And fun. And thorough. And save time as well for me to concentrate on new ideas and things and let me do more with my time. But there is something sinister in using AI for business development and analysis — how can you be sure that you get the correct and right answers? And is this wonderful new tool (or toy — as whatever you might call it) another instrument to condition us — humans — to be lazy? And to accept the answers and results presented by AI without questions? To lose our abstract reasoning abilities and capability for logical thought?

But it saves time…

Well, I would like to say — soon you (or definitely your descendants) will have plenty of time when your work can be done by AI and machines who never complain and never have an off day and never get sick. And what will you do with all that time on your hands and no purpose in life then?