AI is a gizmo.
A contraption.
Gizmos and contraptions can be very useful, provided you know how to use them.
My old math teacher John used to say, “I don’t care if you’re right, I want to know how you were thinking.”
We 16-year-olds of course didn’t get what he was talking about – what do you mean, math is about finding the right number so you can pass the test, isn’t it?
But that wasn’t really the point.
The point was that we were supposed to practice thinking. The point was that we were supposed to learn to reason in several steps. The point was that in the end we’d arrive at answers we could stand behind, because we had used our own brains.
Every day I see people consulting AI without reflecting. Who take whatever the AI spits out as truth. Who equate correct phrasing and fancy word choices with solid reasoning.
People who seem to think AI is an all-knowing being that can do all the thinking for you.
But that’s not what AI is.
AI is a gizmo.