Stop worrying about AGI: Immediate risk is reduced by general intelligence (RGI)

you've heard of AI. “AI will solve the most difficult problems and change our world”, “Ai can make you 10x more productive”, “Ai will end the world,” are common headlines these days.

There is growing talk that artificial general intelligence (AI), AI that can match or surpass human abilities in a variety of cognitive tasks, is just around the corner. The answers are varied: From being amazed by these claims, hoping that this can solve many challenging problems, to worrying that this can take jobs or dominate humanity.

Although agi is a real problem to think about, I think it is very important for the general population to think about the fast but worrying ways we are now seeing as a result of AI.

In the past year however, there have been many disturbing reports of the consequences of over-reliance or misuse of AI. This seems to be aimed at college-going students and young professionals, who are likely to use AI the most. There are many reports of students using AI to solve homework or exams, cheating in interviews, or professionals using it to generate unverified code or reports. In several cases, teachers quickly identified plagiarism in homework, as well as sloppy / error-filled code or documents entered into the workplace without quality control.

Many news articles and videos have highlighted the decline in reading, writing, comprehension and critical thinking skills in students due to over-reliance on AI.

Several anecdotal reports by good programmers have noted the programming skills after getting AI, and a recent paper showed a decrease in the formation and understanding of the latter among users, and a recent mit article emphasized the hidden costs of using codes.

We are also seeing an increase in AI generated content on social media, it is called “AI Slop”. This, combined with the addictive nature of social media leads to them spending more time on these platforms than before, which in turn leads to cognitive decline.

Therefore, the pressing issue at hand is not the effects of artificial general intelligence but what I will call artificial general intelligence (RGI).

Why is this a problem?

To be relevant in today's world, you need to have critical thinking skills and be able to solve problems under deadlines. To be valuable, you need to produce valuable work. If you rely heavily on AI, then the quality of your output depends on how good the AI ​​is. Let's be honest, AI is not always reliable, and if you can't be replaced, you will be replaced. This foundation of basic skills is why RGI is so dangerous.

Critical thinking skills and problem solving skills are like muscles. You can't develop this overnight, and it takes practice. Think of it this way – if you want to get fit, you need to exercise. Using AI to complete your assignments and expecting them to improve is like trying to improve your stamina by driving your car for an hour. As a physical exercise it is important to build strength and power, to solve those problems and personally try those writing and coding assignments are important to develop truly mentally.

Overreliance on AI leads to ethical dilemmas. You are expected to think deeply about the problem and turn to the assignment given to you. Instead, offload it to the AI. The writing produced by many AI tools can easily be distinguished from human writing, and you lose credibility in the eyes of the reader if they say it is not your original work. The student is less likely to take you seriously because they now know that at least part of your work is not yours.

The repeated use of AI also leads people to exceed their capabilities, and we are increasingly seeing this in many areas. Users have little understanding of the basics but wrongly think they know the “advanced stuff”. This is a result of the denning-Kruger effect, where people with low skills in a certain area (which is true when you start studying a certain field) have done everything they know about it. Developing expertise in the field requires you to put in a lot of practice and think independently about problems. You can't ask an AI to think for you and think that you now have it right.

Over-reliance on AI also makes you lazy and often results in trivial work that may take a lot of effort to fix. AI tools can: Create missing references, call functions or variables that are not defined (in the program), include undefined code, have statements, and so on. Then you have to put in a lot of effort to find and fix those mistakes.

Programmers often spend more time debugging and optimizing code compared to writing code. However, we are seeing a sharp surge in “vibe codes”: using AI to generate large blocks of code. This code is very difficult to debug or improve, because you are not sure why the AI ​​chose to write those lines. It is a natural human tendency to think that the code is correct, or simply give in to frustration when you find that it does not work as intended. This leads to unstable code that we don't really understand.

What we can do about it

In today's age, we cannot ignore AI. We are expected to know how to use these tools, and we must learn to use them judiciously.

So we must make conscious and deliberate decisions when using AI. If you are a student, never use AI to solve your homework or tests, as you are losing the long-term benefits of developing critical thinking skills for the short-term benefits of sweet grades. In the long run, a small bump in grades doesn't matter much compared to the skills you've developed.

AI can be very helpful in clarifying concepts you don't understand, or finding multiple references to something you're particularly interested in. However, be sure to think critically before asking for feedback from solid / paid sources.

There are many situations where AI can be used to replace some difficult tasks, or simply save time. This is especially useful if you use this to achieve your skills.

The most important thing is to look closely at the output of any AI tool before using it. Generally consider that the result may be wrong, understand what it means, and carefully check for errors. This ensures that you don't have a problem later, and develops a habit of critical evaluation.

If there is a certain field that you should/can get better at, then use AI a little. Don't use AI to avoid routine or repetitive tasks. You develop mastery only through repetition.

Those algebra and geometry problems you learned in school may feel boring and you may wonder if you ever use them in real life, but by solving them you learn to think through problems logically and develop abstract reasoning skills. While one can discuss the real part and the quality of the content that we see in the school day, there is no doubt that solving various mathematical problems and writing many essays are mental exercises.

While using AI to solve all your problems is a bad idea, it can be a useful tool to evaluate your work and get feedback. For example, let's say you have to write a thousand word Essay or a problem solving plan. An AI tool can easily do this. However, if you want to get better at writing, critical thinking, or programming, then you have to do it yourself. Once you've written an essay or code independently, you can ask the AI ​​for feedback, and use this feedback to improve in the future.

AI is expanding in scope and capability at an unimaginable rate. It can be a great boon if we use it to improve ourselves, or a bane that takes our jobs if we rely too much on it and make it take over.