Does AI Make a Dumb Ass Out of You?

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bionic-hand-and-human-hand-finger-pointing-6153354/

Do you like me, find driving according to the dictates of Google Maps irritating, stifling, and even demeaning? We can see the road ahead, probably recognise it very well, and from time to time come across familiar landmarks to help guide us to our destination. We can also read the sign boards along the way, and if need be pull over and ask someone for directions, if we need a little help with figuring out the right road to take. 

Why focus all your attention on the droning irritating voice of the Google Maps assistant streaming out sometimes incomprehensible instructions in a dumb, indeterminate accent- " In 200 metres turn left," or "Your destination is on the left." Thanks, but no thanks. I have driven to the wrong destination so many times following instructions provided by Google Drive. Other times I have preferred stopping listening to the incessant instructions being blared out by the infernal app and following my own sense of the road to reach my destination with my peace of mind intact! Would you like a Google App to instruct you on how to eat your food as well? "Open your mouth three inches wide and shovel in 20 grams of grain. Now chew for ten seconds. Time to swallow?"

                                                       Photo by Rachel on Unsplash

What is the point of letting AI do the thinking for you and reducing yourself to an instruction-following creature? Something akin to a circus tiger sitting on a stool on hearing the crack of its trainer's whip. Is AI about empowerment or enslavement? The thing is, if you stop exercising your mind and rely upon a machine to take all decisions for you, your mind will one day atrophy. Mankind didn't reach where it is today by being afraid of hard work and a little exercise, including that of the mind. By letting AI take care of everything we risk turning our future generations into incompetent and inept individuals incapable of surviving in an emergency.

Many of us who fly regularly are aware that most commercial aircraft these days fly by the wire on the basis of a program fed into an onboard computer. It is largely only while taking off and landing that the pilot does a hands-on job. Why? Because that is too critical an area to leave to computers. But, what if the whole process from take-off to landing were to be computerised with no involvement of the pilot? What would happen in the case of an emergency? Would it be possible to find a resolution in a life-and-death situation?

When the moon lander carrying Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts was descending towards the lunar surface guided by a computer program, which was crashing every now and then, Armstrong had to assume manual control to be finally able to accomplish the landing. The moral of the story is that it is fine to use any manner of technology including AI to help perform a task efficiently, but you cannot cede control to it. Doing that is a dumb ass act and one would be a dumb ass for performing it.