I'm Worried About the Current State of Generative AI

I started studying computer science in 2023. ChatGPT was already released about a year ago, and people started using it frequently. The whole “AI” topic wasn’t as hyped yet but was definitely on the rise. Stack Overflow was still getting traffic from normal humans, and no one knew what “vibe coding” was. In the last few years, this all changed. At first, using generative AI to solve coding issues faster or write an assignment felt like cheating—now it feels like a necessity to keep up.

With Google, we outsourced information to the internet. But this was at a tradeoff—yes, we didn’t have to remember as much, but we could collect our memories and information on the internet and even find & access it faster than ever before with search engines like Google. Before, you had to remember the phone number of your local doctor or remember the address of that sushi place you love. Nearly every piece of information about us humans was right at your fingertips, just one search away.

Now, with AI, we’re not outsourcing our memory anymore; we’re outsourcing our thinking. Why should I spend hours collecting what I need to build something if I can use a tool that curates everything for me and, while we’re there, even adapts it to solve my exact problem? What started as an experiment for many (and myself) turned into a dependency. It’s like having an expert at your side at every moment who “knows” more than you could ever know. But this expert is trained to prioritize quantity over quality; it’s an expert in being broad, so when it comes to the important details, it’s not always right and sometimes completely wrong. I can judge if a generative AI tool is right about a topic I know a lot about, but that’s probably not something I’ll ask it about.

When I use AI to code or to help solve an assignment, I don’t really feel positive afterward. Of course, it’s a big time saver most of the time, but also, I miss this trial and error phase where you were just stuck and had to pause a moment and recollect yourself to get out of it. I don’t feel like I learn as much anymore, and the motivation to learn hasn’t quite increased as well. “If you’re stuck, just ask AI and get on with it” is the current vibe I get from other people.

I read somewhere that if you run into a code problem, and you can’t solve it reliably with AI in under five minutes, just spend the time and dig deeper. Read a few articles (although they’re most likely also AI-generated lately), read the docs, and try to troubleshoot. Using AI too frequently is not very sustainable anyway, not for your knowledge, not for your mind, not for your sense of problem-solving, and not for the planet. It’s a great tool, but my takeaway here is, that I’ll personally need to refine how I use it to be effective not only in my work but also for myself.