AI : Blessing, Burden or Both?
If you’ve read my previous posts, you might think I’m against AI, and you’d be partly right. I don’t think it’s natural or healthy for humans to have all the answers at our fingertips. Typing a question and getting an instant answer feels convenient, but the satisfaction is limited. I think back to just a few years ago, before AI became publicly accessible, when I researched my dad’s knee operation. I pieced together information from forums, articles, and different sources. The reward wasn’t just finding the solution, but assembling the puzzle myself. Or take school essays, really researching something without instant answers of how to put things together. That sense of discovery feels lost today.
At the same time, it’s hard to ignore how useful AI can be. Most people have used it at some point. When we’re lost, separated from loved ones, facing a health emergency, navigating financial challenges, needing a neat little itinerary, instant answers can feel like a lifeline. The convenience and efficiency are hard to deny; look at how it’s transformed businesses and operations we interact with daily: facial recognition at airports, language translation tools, reduced waiting times, personalised recommendations, smoother communications, reduced operational costs, higher efficiency in hospitals, business; the list of benefits is a long one.
But what worries me is that one day, future generations may never know life before constant technology. Answers will always be on a screen, and the sense of discovery we once experienced could vanish. That thought is both sad and motivating; it reminds me to actively practice life away from technology and to actively pass down the beauty of figuring things out for ourselves in some capacity. While younger generations and the times we live in have immense value, older ways of knowing carry such wisdom and simplicity that ought to be preserved and it is up to us to preserve it through what we practice.
Don’t knock the “olden days.” Some may roll their eyes, but there is meaning, simplicity, and value in what some now call “primitive.” These ways may be what it truly means to be alive and human. Sometimes “knowing everything” through AI doesn’t equate to really knowing and we ought not to confuse information with real wisdom and real values. As humans we are animals, and AI (as amazing as it can be) can also suppress our instinctive animal nature - and not always for the better.
I remember watching an interview with Tony Blair, of all people, where he said social media was introduced to civilize people. Most of us would laugh, because if you’ve ever been online, “civilize” doesn’t always fit what’s going on. AI elevates this challenge, making it easier than ever to spread misinformation and making it hard to know who or what to trust when we are so easily manipulated.
In truth, I don’t know how to feel about AI. It’s amazing, convenient, worrying, and unnatural all at once. Perhaps the answer isn’t to reject it or fully embrace it, but to engage thoughtfully and responsibly, knowing when to rely on it, and when to trust our curiosity, creativity, and instincts. But even this is subjective when thoughtful and responsible means different things to different people.
AI is not black and white; it does immense good, but also immense harm. For me, it exists in shades of grey and while it is now part of our lives, there is value is pausing and stepping away. Being ok with struggle, with not being the most informed, to remember how it feels to take time and discover. For me this is where being human really is.