this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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This is the next step towards Idiocracy. I use AI for things like Summarizing zoom meetings so I don’t need to take notes and I can’t imagine I’ll stop there in the future. It’s like how I forgot everyone’s telephone numbers once we got cell phones…we used to have to know numbers back then. AI is a big leap in that direction. I’m thinking the long term effects are all of us just getting dumber and shifting more and more “little unimportant “ things to AI until we end up in an Idiocracy scene. Sadly I will be there with everyone else.
I used to able to navigate all of Massachusetts from memory with nothing but a paper atlas book to help me. Now I’m lucky if I remember an alternate route to the pharmacy that’s 9 minutes away.
Lewis and Clark are proud of you.
Yeah that’s a big part of it…shifting off the stuff that we don’t think is important (and probably isn’t). My view is that it’s escalated to where I’m using my phone calculator for stuff I did in my head in high school (I was a cashier in HS so it was easy)…which is also not a big deal but getting a little bigger than the phone number thing. From there, what if I used it to leverage a new programming API as opposed to using the docs site. Probably not a big deal but bigger than the calculator thing to me. My point is that it’s all these little things that don’t individually matter but together add up to some big changes in the way we think. We are outsourcing our thinking which would be helpful if we used the free capacity for higher level thinking but I’m not sure if we will.
spoiler
askldjfals;jflsad;One example: getting arrested
You might not. But you might (especially with this current admin). Cops will never let you use your phone after you've been detained. Unless you go free the same night, expect to never have a phone call with anyone but a lawyer or bail bonds agency.
spoiler
askldjfals;jflsad;An assistant at my job used AI to summarize a meeting she couldn't attend, and then she posted the results with the AI-produced disclaimer that the summary might be inaccurate and should be checked for errors.
If I read a summary of a meeting I didn't attend and I have to check it for errors, I'd have to rewatch the meeting to know if it was accurate or not. Literally what the fuck is the point of the summary in that case?
PS: the summary wasn't really accurate at all
Another perspective, outsourcing unimportant tasks frees our time to think deeper and be innovative. It removes the entry barrier allowing people who would ordinarily not be able to do things actually do them.
It allows people who can't do things to create filler content instead of dropping the ball entirely. The person relying on the AI will not be part of the dialogue for very long, not because of automation, but because people who can't do things are softly encouraged to get better or leave, and they will not be getting better.
What you’re describing isn’t anything unique when a new industry comes out.
It doesn’t need to be specifically for public consumption. Currently I’m wrapping up several personal projects that I started precovid but couldn’t achieve because I struggle at a few lower level tasks. It’s kind of like someone who struggles manually performing 100 7 digit number calculations. Using excel solves this issue, and isnt “cheating” because the goal is beyond the ability to accurately add everything.
That’s the claim from like every AI company and wow do I hope that’s what happens. Maybe I’m just a Luddite with AI. I really hope I’m wrong since it’s here to stay.
If paying attention and taking a few notes in a meeting is an unimportant task, you need to ask why you were even at said meeting. That's a bigger work culture problem though