From instant essays to AI-generated art, technology is reshaping how we produce content— but as we outsource creativity to machines, are we sacrificing our ability to think for ourselves?
AI’s Alarmingly Exponential Evolution
Most freely available tools have become a go-to for students, professionals and artists alike due to their seemingly limitless capabilities. The ability to generate essays, artworks, coding solutions, and even music with the touch of a button offers convenience and efficiency. However, excessive reliance on these technologies presents a frequently overlooked risk: Preventing individuals from engaging in critical thinking.AI models eliminate the need for problem-solving, creativity or research from the user and grant a seemingly relevant and accurate judgement, that many subconsciously use as a replacement to individual critical thinking. A comparison could be drawn between my academic performance in highschool and now, in university. Large language models (LLMs) such as us widely-used ChatGPT were not popularized up until the very end of my high school years, , as opposed to their substantial presence as of 2025.Consequently, I had to get through my high school years without AI tools at my disposal, like many of you reading this article. AI tools have made it a commodity for countless to inquire upon them whenever they are presented with a problem, or even a simple task. An example observed was when an instructor asked their students to choose a group name for a project –the first course of action for nearly every student was to immediately enter a prompt for the AI to generate name ideas. A shocking observation.
4 years ago, the average consumer was not yet aware of the existence of this technology, yet was faced with the same responsibilities. Taking the same observation from before, the group names that students came up with 4 years ago were authentic and reflective of raw human thought, brainstorming and collaboration.
Nowadays, people are satisfied with using the product of an AI tool generating ideas through scraping together the information from millions of internet sources and calling it their own work. Looking back, I am grateful that I got through highschool without these tools, because I believe that their absence pushed me to be creative and gave me the responsibility to produce work that truly originates from me. AI tools can almost make individuals unproductive, as they view assignments and projects by keeping in mind that their chat-bot companions can complete them within seconds. The absence of these tools meant that ‘knowers’ who are in pursuit of any type of information were forced to go in their own pursuit to obtain this information, whether it’s through web research, discussions or other written sources. This promoted learning that is more memorable and organic, and the way of conducting research this way formed the foundation of theories such as the scientific method.
Naivety and Negligence
Additionally, precision is another concern.Knowing that AI is capable of creating a more precise and factual response to a requirement is detrimental, because it disincentivizes the user from attempting to form their own answer. The danger is that these same users forget that language models are very prone to errors. Thus, using AI written outputs directly without cross-examination often leads to inaccurate and poor quality pieces of work being produced. Instead, It is best to use AI tools as a point of reference when compiling one’s own research, rather than basing a piece of work entirely upon the generated output. It is crucial to trust in the brilliance of the human mind and exercise self-thought along with the use of AI tools.
Environmental Implications and The Rise of DeepSeek
Undoubtedly, AI is a powerful instrument in today’s world. Aside from atrophying brainstorming capabilities and leading to negligent behaviours in the completion of work/school related assignments, AI is also responsible for the consumption of thousands of liters of water and energy every day, due to the high computational power required for the operation of the models. 2025 could be ground-breaking in the AI realm, especially with the recent reveal of DeepSeek, a Chinese-owned open source language model. As AI tools become increasingly integrated into our lives, consumers must remain vigilant about their risks and mindful of their broader impact.