Cyberpunk’d

“Do you really want to live through the rise of the machines?”

That’s a question I find myself posing more and more to my friends because of the rapid technological advancement throughout our society.

You have seen it, and so have I: the power to get whatever you want with just a swipe of your finger on your phone; the ability to scream your opinions into cyberspace and find people who agree with you or call for your death; the chance to find someone from your past with a simple Google search. Such things would have been unimaginable decades ago—yet here we are.

So, what does it mean for us university students who bear the brunt of this technological revolution? Well, unlike some of my peers, I am not super optimistic about the future. I have a creeping fear that we are seeing the beginning of some crappy, low-budget, cyberpunk story—where instead of having cool cybernetics, we get corporate tyranny. We are beginning to see this more through what everyone and their grandmothers are talking about: Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI has been all the buzz in the academic world. This year, I noticed that every one of my syllabi includes a section discussing the University’s policy on when and how to use AI. The topic has gotten so much attention that even major news outlets have begun to discuss AI’s ramifications for the academic world.

MacLean’s, for example, published a rather provocative article, “The University Essay Will Die Out,” which argues that AI will become a tool, much like a calculator, in formulating essays, and professors will have to respond by coming up with new assignments. While this makes for a convincing argument, the article overlooks one key thing: the importance of essays for developing critical thinking.

Now don’t think for a single second that I’m in love with essays. I’ve had a few that have quite frankly kicked the hell out of me, but they do one thing well: teach critical thinking. An essay forces you to sit down and think through a problem at every stage. AI completely jumps to the end of that process.

Some AI, like Perplexity, take this further by drawing on the internet, while something like ChatGPT can only draw onto what has been inputted into it. In any case, most of the heavy lifting that promotes critical thinking, like formulating a research question, doing the research, and putting it together, can be completely skipped over when using these platforms.

Such skipping is not good for our collective psyche because it not only deprives us of what makes us human but it also leaves us more susceptible to misinformation. Social media is a prime example of this. While social media has the power to connect us, it also has the power to divide us. For example, a recent article in The New York Times notes how a well-crafted lie gets more interactions online than a truthful post. The online world is becoming more and more like a maze of mirrors, where we see only a distorted reflection of ourselves. A weird simulacrum that threatens not only how we consume information but also how we interact with people.

We are confined to echo chambers where proper critical thinking—something that everyone should have—is tossed out for comfortable groupthink. These online echo chambers combined with AI that spoon- feed us information at the drop of a hat have discouraged critical thinking in our society.

I’ve seen this on both sides of the political divide on social media. Politics has become a game of who is the most theatrical and who can stir up the most anger. God knows we are seeing this in Canada with a certain opposition leader. Even worse, the rise in demagogy is fed by this spreading of misinformation and use of it to their own advantage.

All of this relates back to us university students because AI and misinformation affect   the   development of our critical thinking skills. We must be able to recognise that something like AI, while helpful in the short term, ultimately damages our ability to think for ourselves. The same is true for social media misinformation. Herd mentality and groupthink can erode the most powerful critical thinking skills, so users must be wary.

The whole point of university is to develop the critical thinking skills needed to not only be a better person but also to have a satisfying career. Why would I ever want to take a shortcut with AI or participate in an echo chamber? While technological advancements may be beneficial, we should seriously start to consider how they can impact not only university students but societal tools.

Sidenote: Can we please get on with developing kick-ass cybernetics? Halloween is coming up, and I need a metal arm for my Johnny Silverhand costume.