AI Is Making A Specific Type Of Person Feel Brilliant But Experts Say That's Actually The Problem
Dragon Images | Shutterstock In all seriousness, though, AI has been making some people feel brilliant, and some experts say it's an issue.
Saying someone is brilliant, as defined by Dictionary.com, is to describe them as exhibiting both an exceptional intellect and intelligence. In other words, having the capacity to learn something while also being able to delve deep into it using abstract and reflective reasoning.
According to experts, however, people who lack self-awareness get duped by the ease and perceived importance surrounding the onslaught of information. Unfortunately, they lack the ability to sift through the slop, so to speak, and use it as a tool instead of a crutch.
AI makes people who lack self-awareness feel brilliant, but experts say that's a problem.
People who lack self-awareness are generally unable to distinguish the level of their own abilities. This could mean anything from overthinking an interaction the other person has already forgotten to believing that one can indeed run a marathon without training for it. While it may not look very great on its surface, lacking self-awareness can have its, albeit superficial, perks.
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Ever heard of the saying, ignorance is bliss? These types of people embody that perfectly. Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Jenna Budreau-Roman told Parade, "people who struggle with self-awareness have difficulty with metacognition — that is, the ability to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings and internal experiences," She added, “Instead of being attuning to their inner world, they operate primarily on surface-level urges, sensations and reactions without understanding why.”
Without self-awareness, some people can go as far as to think they are much greater than they actually are or that they're somehow more valuable than the average person. Their usage of AI is by no means an exception.
Using AI is not helpful when the user lacks self-awareness, which is why AI literacy is so important.
In a recent TikTok, Kyle Vamvouris, who covers AI news, shared an encounter with a colleague who'd sent him 50 documents, each 40 pages long, that were clearly generated by AI. The colleague was convinced it was exceptionally well written, while Vamvouris was left dumbfounded by how incoherent all the information was.
Vamvouris then went on to say that AI "is giving a segment of people the experience of competence when they're really not," stating that his expertise in AI allows him to work with it in a way that's helpful and accurate to him as a user. Whereas others who don't realize how it works believe that they are competent based on the amount of output AI gives them when solving a problem.
That's not to say that AI use should be avoided at all costs. AI literacy is important. The technology isn't going anywhere, and we all need to understand how to use it properly without becoming dependent on it.
In an article for The Conversation, researchers on politics and education Daniel S. Schiff, Arne Bewersdorff, and Marie Hornberger, discussed the importance of this concept of AI literacy, calling it, "'a set of competencies that enables individuals to critically evaluate AI technologies; communicate and collaborate effectively with AI; and use AI as a tool online, at home, and in the workplace.'”
In simpler terms: getting people to understand what AI is, how it works, and to remember that AI is not infallible. However, many people, like Vamvouris's colleague, are genuinely internalizing AI's abilities as if they were their own. Once it generates a response, it suddenly becomes a reflection of the user's intellect. One way this behavior is being reinforced is by consulting AI for personal problems.
Consulting AI as a confidante or friend only makes it more difficult to use it effectively.
A recent study conducted by Stanford computer scientists found that many AI chatbots are highly agreeable even when dealing with people's personal issues. However, it was the less self-aware people who were more drawn to AI to feed into the fixed beliefs they already had about a situation.
What that means is, people who lack the ability to see the limitations in themselves and in AI are more likely to fall for the sycophantic messages and advice delivered by these chatbots.
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Apart from that, using AI for personal problems is making users less likely to reach out to others. Because AI chatbots are agreeable, the person's ideas, thoughts, and feelings become caught in a reinforcing cycle, no matter how harmful they might be.
Unfortunately, being told what you want to hear over and over again does not improve the situation. Rather, it reinforces a false narrative, only making their lack of self-awareness, for lack of a better term, worse. Simply put: We need to be self-aware when using AI.
While AI has its benefits, it is much better for anyone using it and for society as a whole to take a humble approach to it. Just because AI can generate a lengthy response does not mean said response contains any worthwhile substance. It certainly should not feed into any feelings of brilliance.
In fact, being brilliant actually involves doing a lot of what AI cannot do: being skilled, uniquely insightful, and thinking outside the box, to name a few. If AI is making you feel brilliant, it's probably time to take a break from it for a while.
Luke Aliga is a writer with a degree in Technical Writing and Communication who covers relationships, culture, and human interest topics.
