Zavia Pittman

Staff Writer 

ChatGPT Is Not Your Friend

Over the past several years, we have seen an influx of artificial intelligence (AI) use all over social media and the news. In particular, social media has a way of making something seem as if it suddenly appeared from nowhere, but AI has been around for quite some time. We might associate it with modern chatbots or online chess matches, but people have been studying it since a 1956 Dartmouth University research project coined the term. However, we have never seen AI use quite like we see today.

The way I first came across modern AI was through art. I would see images of cartoonish yet somehow photorealistic people on Instagram’s Explore page, which looked amazing. Next to the image would be a real-life photo that was eerily similar. Scrolling down to see who the artist was, I would learn that there was no artist because an AI created the image. 

From that point on, I only became more unnerved by AI.

Soon, there were hundreds of YouTube channels with AI-generated content, and I learned that AI is not only creating images, it’s also writing. People were using AI tools to write essays, make workout programs, and make money. (That’s capitalism for you.) YouTube’s algorithm favored and heavily pushed this content on its new Shorts feature. That same unsettling feeling would well up within me whenever I saw the two letters in a video’s title. 

In addition to feeling uncomfortable, I also felt a sense of betrayal. My fellow humans seemed to abandon human creators for this shiny new AI. Instead of writing something for themselves, people typed random words into a program and let something else do the hard work. The near-perfect illustrations made by AI programs were taking over visual art. One of the scariest parts is not just the replication of human efforts but how easily people can do that with this technology.

Many companies already oppose paying workers a fair wage and typically make minimal investments in training people. If AI is easy for an individual to use, what stops a company from making AI a cheaper replacement for humans?  Corporations will likely hop on the bandwagon if regular folks can already see how profitable AI can be.

(Wow, this is getting a bit dark.)

I don’t want to come off as a fearmonger. However, I would be lying if I said the thought of AI didn’t make me anxious. My peers (or Gen Z in general) have grown used to hearing distressing news pretty much all the time, so much so that we may have become numb to it. Regardless, we still have the power to make changes and build the future we want to live in. We must pay attention to the consequences of the mass adoption of AI and try to minimize its effects on human creativity.

There is something unique about a human’s process of creating a piece of art, whether a painting or an essay. Mistakes, thoughts, and emotions are behind every stroke and word. Most importantly, it takes time, time that teaches the creator about themselves or about the art itself. Art is another way to share humanity and experience the human condition. Being able to type random words into a program and get an instant product lacks the beauty of real art and strips the creator of any real artistic effort.

I try to avoid engaging with AI content and have never used an AI program. I also try to support people’s efforts, whether commissioning art from human artists or reading articles I know have been written by someone. Invest in your fellow people if possible—it is a much more meaningful experience.