Generative AI poses an under-rated threat to critical thinking skills. Writing is hard. Writing well is even harder-er. It requires the ability to conceptualize, analogize, and empathize. It requires an appreciation for different styles of prose, themes, and cultural nuance. It requires a regular reading habit (visual or auditory) because the best way to make writing well less harder-er is to read. In other words, it makes total sense that ChatGPT would seem like a gift from the gods. But the reasons writing is hard, as stated above, are also what make writing such a worthwhile exercise, especially in terms of honing and sharpening critical thinking skills. As consumers, whether we are individuals or businesses requiring products and/or services, we want the people designing and delivering those products and services to have very good, if not excellent, critical thinking skills. Evaluating the written and visual communications disseminated by these providers has traditionally been a barometer for this. With ChatGPT, anyone with a pulse can stand up a website, marketing campaign, or worse (more on that later) with a few clicks. Suddenly, you no longer need a team of excellent critical thinkers designing the most cost-effective strategy to engage with the right audience in the right place at the right time. As a professional copywriter and strategist, I have an extreme Luddite bias against the tool that would threaten my livelihood. Ironically, I also have a financial incentive to use generative AI tools for all of my copywriting and strategy work, because it would allow me to exponentially increase my output without having to hire a team of critical thinkers to support said output increase. The fact that I am not currently on Fiverr doing the latter suggests there may be a significant downside. Or maybe I’m just a terrible businessman. Both? I’ve lost you, haven’t I. Let’s try this: remember how, a few weeks ago, a company in Europe was caught using generative AI to promote a fantastical Willy Wonka experience for families? And that, after web visitors had purchased their nonrefundable tickets, they discovered that the “experience“ was more meth lab than it was magic kingdom? We all laughed at it, but this is happening in marketing departments of B2C and B2B brands all across the world. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is using generative AI to get work done faster, avoid “unnecessary“ meetings, do an end-around established quality control measures, and rush projects to market. But what’s the downside? The most visible, and therefore obvious, downside is that consumers are being promised the moon with a never ending fire hose of mediocre messages, and being delivered a cardboard cut out. Less obvious, but perhaps more insidious, is that we are no longer required to utilize and develop our critical thinking skills. That’s what scares me the most. Note: this was written without the aid of generative AI.
Yaroslav Sobko
4mo
What a thought-provoking perspective on the impact of generative AI on critical thinking skills! William Bailey
It’s true. I’ve noticed it already, as I use a lot of genAI for my study. It is so easy to stop caring yourself and start using an AI. But as I noticed this, I created a new strategy with AI. It now complements my reading and writing, instead of overtaking it!