Use Artificial Intelligence In Such A Way That Your Thinking Ability Does Not Decrease

Now the use of Artificial Intelligence i.e. AI is increasing continuously in our daily life.

Whether it is finding the answer to a question or information on the internet, writing an email or listening to a song, Artificial Intelligence is being used in all these. Our computer gives us information immediately through algorithms based on this.

This definitely makes our work easier, but are we becoming overly dependent on it? Are we starting to use our critical thinking i.e. the ability to think deeply on a subject less and our ability is getting weaker.

Is our self-confidence also decreasing? Many studies show that this is having a bad effect on our critical thinking i.e. critical thinking.

In a study by MIT’s Media Lab, some people were asked to write an essay. Some of them used AI for this, while others did not.

It was seen that those who used AI to write essays became lazier while writing the next essay.

So this week in Duniya Jahan we will try to understand whether Artificial Intelligence is destroying our critical thinking ability?

What is critical thinking

Critical thinking means to assess and decide in an unbiased manner by examining all aspects of a subject. That is, instead of blindly accepting something, consider all its aspects. We use this ability to solve problems.

Dr. Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology at Virginia University, America, says that we often decide something not on the basis of critical thinking but on the basis of our memory.

He says, “Actually, we often depend on our previous experiences or memory to find a solution to a problem. But sometimes we face a problem that is coming to us for the first time. That is, we cannot solve it on the basis of our memory. In such a situation, our critical thinking comes to the fore.”

“Memory is important and many times we have successfully solved problems with its help. However, many times problems are not solved easily even with critical thinking.”

When we solve a problem, it gets recorded in our memory and the next time we solve such a challenge on the basis of previous experience.

Critical thinking resides in the front part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, while memory is stored in another place. That part is called the hippocampus. Due to overwork, toxins get accumulated in the prefrontal cortex, due to which we feel tired.

According to Dr. Daniel Willingham, it is because of this fatigue that we prefer to rely on our memory instead of critical thinking. This makes the work easier, but we are deprived of learning new ways to solve problems.

Solving problems in the same way also means that we stop stressing our brain. Critical thinking does put pressure on the brain, but it also becomes sharper and more capable.

Dr. Daniel Willingham says that critical thinking has two benefits.

“One is that we learn to face new challenges and the brain becomes sharper. The second big benefit is that as we grow older, our brain’s abilities often start weakening. But critical thinking helps in keeping the brain healthy and sharp in old age.”

The question is, how does AI come in the way of critical thinking?

Artificial Intelligence

Dr Michael Garlick is a professor of management at SBS Business School in Switzerland. We asked him how Artificial Intelligence or AI is defined.

He said, “This definition has two parts – Artificial and Intelligence, which is operated by a machine. It actually imitates the human brain in its work. Just like we train children, AI is also trained in the same way. It acquires the ability to reason and understand like humans. That is, the machine makes decisions by analyzing the information available in it and helps us in many tasks. It even makes decisions for us.”

Artificial Intelligence collects many types of information or data and it gives us answers by evaluating the same. Earlier computers had limited information and all computers gave the same answer to a question.

Artificial Intelligence is different in this case and it can give different answers to the same question according to the context and situations based on different types of information. It keeps collecting new data which is also called Large Language Model.

Dr. Michael Garlick explains, “AI guesses what you want to know by evaluating each word, but it is unable to understand the context well. Large Language Model does not understand history. It has a lot of information about history and it tries to understand what you want to know by evaluating the words and answers accordingly.”

“Generative Intelligence has now started understanding the complexities of information and questions. Now it is being used in our search engines, smartphones and platforms like WhatsApp. Based on language and data, it guesses what would be the right answer to a question. Sometimes it also gets confused in this.”

Generative AI sometimes also gives us flattering answers. That is, it wants to guess what you want to hear and presents the answer accordingly.

Dr. Michael Garlick says that it was created to give us relief, so from the way we ask questions, it guesses whether we want to hear a positive answer or a negative one and answers accordingly. This helps us, but by increasing dependence on it, we start using our discretion and understanding less.

Dr. Michael Garlick believes that ‘Generative AI saves our time and effort by doing many tasks quickly, but at the same time takes us away from thinking on our own. In a way, it starts doing our thinking work itself. It also starts taking decisions for us itself. I found in a study that by increasing dependence on AI, our critical thinking starts decreasing.’

But can there be such a way of using AI that helps us, but does not reduce our critical thinking?

AI that helps in reading and writing

Yuan So is the head and founder of a Singapore-based digital platform called Noodle Factory.

In fact, this AI-based platform is used in education and training. It was named Noodle Factory because its founder believes that using it is as easy as making noodles. But how does this platform help people in training?

Yuan So said that this platform solves the problems that we all have been facing.

She says, “This is actually our clone. In many schools or colleges, if students do not understand something, they avoid asking questions again. But with this platform, you can ask the answer to a question multiple times. Many international students have difficulty understanding the subject being taught in a foreign language. This platform can teach students in their mother tongue.”

Large language models are used to create this type of educational platform. All the data of a course is included in this platform, which students can use as per their convenience.

Yuwan So says, “This platform works as an assistant to teachers, but artificial intelligence cannot replace teachers. Its role is limited and it does less important work done by teachers. For example, it can answer frequently asked questions of students. It can save teachers’ time by helping them in grading or checking question papers.”

There is no doubt that digital platforms based on artificial intelligence prove to be helpful in reading and writing. But does dependence on them slow down the brain of students?

Yuan So said, “Many students use AI to complete the work given by teachers. For example, they write essays with the help of AI. But for this, they have to enter a lot of data in the digital platform, about which they have to think. That is, their own critical thinking is used. We cannot ignore AI. But now teachers will have to adopt new ways of teaching and testing students keeping in mind the use of AI.”

Use of the brain

Sana Kharenghani, Professor of Practice in AI at King’s College London, says that along with the use of AI, we should also use our brain.

Professor Sana Kharenghani says, “For example, we use our memory to solve a problem. But when we use AI, we should think deeply about the answer we get from it and use or evaluate that information only after thinking.”

“We have to mold ourselves to use AI in the right way. We should also teach children to question the information received from AI instead of blindly trusting it so that this technology remains under our control. But government policies are also needed to control this technology.”

AI can also be used by advertising companies and they can encourage us to buy many things. How can this be controlled?

Sana Kharenghani is of the opinion that the government should ensure that there is transparency in this technology.

She says, “When AI explains something to us or encourages us to do something, we should also know how much confidence the AI has in its suggestion. For example, if AI is not completely confident about its suggestion, then it should tell us that we should also check other sources for this information. If it is a matter of buying something, then it should also tell us about other options.”

But can AI reduce critical thinking?

Sana Kharenghani said, “We should keep our dependence on AI low. We should not think that AI will do all our work. It is important to keep a balance between its use and the use of our brain. We should also not distrust everything it says, because this will reduce our productivity. That is, we should use it in a balanced way. But at the same time, to keep transparency in this technology, control over it is also necessary.” So now let’s return to our main question – is Artificial Intelligence destroying our ability to think?

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming a part of our daily lives and we are gradually becoming dependent on it for many digital tasks.

Artificial Intelligence is increasing our productivity and is very helpful in learning and teaching. But as it is developing more and more and our dependence on it is increasing, we have reduced the use of our brain to solve many problems, which can slow down our brain.

We have also seen that we cannot always trust the answer of AI, so we should draw any conclusion only after thinking about it carefully.

AI will be able to destroy our critical thinking only when we allow it to do so. Therefore, along with the use of AI, it is also important to use our understanding and intelligence.

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