I see pictures of protests across the USA where AI data centers are being built and promise some life disruption for the locals such as noise, excessive impact on electricity, and traffic congestion. I am told by a friend that he got laid off with a good job in Texas because AI centers were taking over land spots where his employer had been working. I quit an adjunct college teaching job because students were cheating with AI writing much of their papers – and I had to spend more time as AI law enforcement than I did teaching. THEN – I find out that an AI data center is going to be built in Clarke County at the intersection of Highways 18 and 145.
AI is a cost of progress. It is the reason that we can answer any question quickly on the internet, use GPS on our phones to tell us how to go some place where we have never gone before, and how much time it will take to get there. AI even remembers words we typically type in our cell-phone texts and will finish words for us as we start to type them. And yes, AI will write papers, speeches, and even books for us.
The cost of this use of AI in our lives is some dehumanization and promotion of increased laziness and decreased intelligence. A recent survey in high schools showed a greatest concern of parents and teachers to be the increased reliance of students to use AI instead of their own personal intelligence to complete assignments. A concern for students to do critical thinking has been upgraded to a concern for students to think on their own.
I recently was relying on my phone GPS to get me to a workshop near Lafayette, LA. My phone quit working just before turning onto Interstate 12 and I panicked. My directions and my people contact numbers were all in my phone and I could not access these for help. Fortunately, I saw a big 18-wheeler place and was able to get a replacement for my phone cord. This got me back into the GPS plans for my trip.
Once upon a time when travelling, I carried an atlas and a little notebook with phone numbers in it. I could stop and use a pay phone, then a bag phone, then a flip phone, and even my I-phone before AI-GPS was a core part of them.
Like any tool of progress, AI has its benefits. But it also has its downside. Best practice would still be to rely on our natural God-given intelligence as a priority – to use it or lose it.
