AI Dependency
This issue has been brought up and it’s a good one - what happens if you start using AI and become dependent on it? I will start by conceding it will happen to everyone and it has happened to me. Now let me explain how it’s not what the fear mongers think.
I’m also going to set aside my “Use AI to enhance yourself, not replace yourself”. It’s a related, but different topic and I’ve written several books on it. Just know that I acknowledge that lazy students who have AI write their papers harm themselves in exactly the same way paying for term papers always has. They cheat themselves.
So, we are left with - even if you use AI reasonably, you aren’t cheating with it, your mind is engaged and you are using it as an appropriate tool, not as personal replacement — you STILL have a dependency issue.
Truth 1: I’m already dependent on phones, cars, electricity, credit cards, grocery stores - the list is endless. I’m already dependent on computers and the cloud and services that require the cloud and computers. AI isn’t different.
Truth 2: If AI becomes too expensive tomorrow, or is taken away by some happening…I would be affected. The level of productivity I have using AI would revert back to the level I had before. There might be an adjustment period because I’ve grown to LOVE the extra ability and productivity I get with AI.
I would lose my “I can code pretty much anything into existence” ability. I wouldn’t lose my ability to code, but I’d be VERY RUSTY. Just as I already am with ALL the programming languages I haven’t worked daily in for years.
Truth 3: I’d retain a lot of higher level skills that I developed because AI freed me from the less important. Planning, architecture, solving problems at a higher and holistic level. I’d be even better at running human teams than before. You get better at what you use daily - and AI taking away so much of the drudge work allows me to spend more of my day at more valuable tasks.
Truth 4: I’m not optimizing my life over what happens if civilization falls. I’ll be one of those who starves because I don’t grow my own food and I don’t have the weapons needed to take away from those who prepared. AI has joined a long list of modern life that I depend on.
