Introduction
It's been a few years now since generative AI worked its way into everyday life.
AI has made life more convenient for a lot of people, but at the same time, I've been seeing more and more talk about its downsides.
The one I come across most often lately is the idea that using AI has a negative effect on how well you retain and understand things.
For example, something like this: you split people into a group that solves a problem using AI and a group that solves it without, and when you check on them again after some time has passed, the group that used AI remembers less about it.
This is something I can relate to. Or rather — I can't say for sure, but compared to how I was before AI, I've been handing whole tasks over to it more often, and I feel like I retain less and learn less by thinking things through. I build things up piece by piece less than I used to. Instead, more and more, it's AI laying the groundwork for my ideas and my work.
I Was Handing Over the Wrong Things
So is AI entirely to blame? I don't think so — I think it's a matter of how you use it and how you approach it. Looking back at my own usage, the problem was less about AI itself and more about what I was handing over to it.
Take coming up with ideas. Throw it at AI and you'll get plenty of plausible-sounding ones. But I've come to feel that some subjects suit this and some don't, especially anything involving my own opinion or taste. For those, thinking it through myself from the start usually gets me to the finish line faster, and leaves me more satisfied with the result. When I hand the initial idea over to AI instead, what comes back often feels detached, like it belongs to someone else, and a little thin.
On the other hand, there's work where the rough shape is already there but it isn't finished yet. Smoothing off the rough edges of that kind of thing is where I think AI is good. Pointing out gaps and typos, offering a different way to phrase something, cross-checking against what I've already written — that sort of thing. This is worth handing over, and I use it a lot myself. (Even for these dev.to posts, I never skip having AI check the text before I publish.)
The problem is that the line between the two gets blurry over time. Once you get used to AI, you start throwing both kinds at it, just to see. Especially when I'm tired or don't feel like thinking, I've found myself handing over things I should have done myself, simply because doing them felt like a hassle.
Trying to Take the Easy Way Doesn't Make It Easier
I'm often dissatisfied with what AI gives me. Not what I wanted, too shallow, off the mark. I used to assume the problem was on AI's end, and I'd get irritated about it fairly often. Lately, though, my first instinct is to suspect that I asked badly. Usually that's exactly it: I said something vague, so something vague came back. Sometimes the information is all there, but what I'm actually asking for is off, so I never reach the answer I wanted. When I put myself in AI's position at moments like that, I sometimes realize there was no way to answer the question as I'd asked it.
Thinking back, whenever I've worked with AI and felt like we made something good, I was also thinking hard the whole time. What do I want to make, where am I stuck. Just putting that into words means I've already done about half the thinking myself. AI feels like it's helping me with the rest.
The opposite case is when I've been brainstorming forever and getting nowhere. In those moments, my thinking has usually shut down. I throw things out without being clear about what I even want, vaguely hoping "something good" comes back. And when that doesn't happen, I get dissatisfied with the result. So I throw out something sloppy again, and I'm in a bad loop. (While I was thinking about this, it struck me that the same thing happens between people. Funny, isn't it.)
If you use AI expecting it to save you effort, it turns out it doesn't, really. If anything, you end up redoing the work yourself later and losing more time. If you want it to be easy, it's faster to think first — that's how it feels to me lately.
Conclusion
Today I've tried to put together my own thoughts on what I've noticed while using AI.
AI is convenient, but the more I use it, the easier it is to lean on it without noticing — dumping anything troublesome on it without giving it much thought, treating it carelessly. That's what I've been doing. Writing this post has made me rethink how I want to work with AI (which sounds grander than it is).
AI looks like it can do anything, but it can't.
Before I ask AI, I sort out what I want to ask it. AI keeps getting better, but I'm the one who has something I want to make, and if that part stays vague, nothing takes shape.
How about you — where do you draw the line between what you do yourself and what you hand to AI? I'd love to hear it in the comments.
Thanks for reading.
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