Long Division and Why I Stopped Using ChatGPT

“Use It or Lose It” and Other Concerns

By guest author Forest Antemesaris.

I have never been good at math. It was my worst subject in school.

I scored so poorly on the math portion of the ACT that I was required by Florida state law to take a remedial math class my senior year of high school, even though I had satisfied all the math requirements to graduate. “I hate math” was the slogan of my senior year.

I never had a grade lower than a B in high school. In college, I earned a D in the only math class I needed to satisfy my degree requirements. I couldn’t believe it, but I also wasn’t surprised. Math had never been my thing.

I am ashamed to admit that I have grown less proficient in math since then. As far as I can tell, this is explained simply: I don’t have to use most of what I’ve learned about math. I walk around with a calculator in my pocket 24/7. Why would I practice my math skills? There’s an app for that.

Just last week, I attempted to do some long division to see whether I could. I couldn’t. I didn’t even know where to start. I had to watch a YouTube tutorial to know what to do. I am almost 30. I have two kids. I have a mortgage. I am a “functioning” member of society. I can’t even do division.

This is a “use it or lose it” situation. Having never been proficient in math, not exercising the math portion of my brain has led to atrophy and calcification over time. I’m stuck counting on my fingers and dependent on my iPhone’s calculator.

Because I haven’t needed to do serious math, I have all but lost the ability to do so. Sure, I could do some Khan Academy modules and work my math muscle if I wanted to. It’s possible to get better. But until I put in some real work to growing proficient in math, I won’t be. I haven’t needed to be proficient for a long time, and I likely won’t need to be in the future.

What does this have to do with ChatGPT and similar AI bots? In my opinion, everything.

Like the calculator in my pocket, these AI bots offer the ability to help us figure things out. Need a creative solution? Need some help brainstorming an idea? Need to write a paragraph describing something? Need to draft an email? Need to research something? Need to create a marketing campaign? Want to write a book? Want to write a script? Want to write a poem? AI can do it. Maybe it can’t do all those things well right now, but as we feed the machine and it “learns” and “trains,” these models will get better and better. AI will keep getting smarter and smarter.

But will we?

I have a friend who teaches 5th grade. This friend gave a student a poor grade because the student copied and pasted a ChatGPT response as an essay (leaving the prompt in and everything). My friend was informed by higher-ups that this student should instead be taught how to prompt ChatGPT more effectively.

This is how some kids in our country are being taught to write essays. Instead of being taught how to think better, they are being taught how to manipulate AI to be better at thinking for them. My younger brother, who is in high school, tells me that it is already commonplace to use ChatGPT on homework assignments. The teachers can’t tell.

There’s already more machine learning than human learning going on in some of our schools (as if you needed more evidence that our country’s education system is failing without a major course correction).

What if, just like my math skills have waned because I have a calculator in my pocket, our thinking skills will wane because we have an omniscient oracle in our pocket?

Personally, I don’t want my ability to come up with creative ideas and edit writing to go the way of my ability to do long division. So, I stopped using ChatGPT. I don’t think I’m better than people who use it, nor do I think it’s impossible to use it wisely (with caution).

But I do think we all need to consider what we are potentially sacrificing by using these bots. My encouragement in a sentence is this: don’t use AI to do something you don’t want to lose the ability to do.

New technologies are often adopted without soberly thinking about the possible drawbacks and unintended consequences of using them. Many people have made chatbots their guides, counselors, and editors without thinking about what could be at stake other than doing more faster and easier.

And I would argue that there are some good reasons not to use AI at all (as much as we can control it — it’s being thrust upon us in essentially every technology and digital service). We are outsourcing our humanity to algorithms. In the name of saving time and making work easier, we’re losing our ability to do the things we’re created to do.

Some people have lost their minds using AI chatbots, and others are struggling not to overuse them. By some expert forecasts, we are ~5 years out from a potential AI technocracy where we are all relegated to Universal Basic Income and the hope that whoever develops the most powerful AI model is a beneficent overlord.

I can only speak for myself, but I don’t want to participate by feeding the machine. I don’t want AI to be able to learn from me how to replace me. I want the children of our country to be able to write essays the hard way.

To respond to the critics: yes, I acknowledge that some of this is based on fear and “doomsday” forecasting. But sometimes negative forecasts come true. Do you trust the secular transhumanist billionaires to develop and enforce good ethical standards for AI? If AI turns into the Tower of Babel 2.0, God will scatter and confuse it like before, but it could get bad in the meantime.

Also, yes, I acknowledge that AI’s development is the Industrial Revolution on steroids. Things are going to change, and those who do not adopt AI will be left in the dust. The AI machine will roll forward whether I participate or not. I get it. But I refuse to participate. I’m willing to be a Luddite. I am willing to do less, slower. If I am left behind in a pile of dust, maybe I can do some long division with my finger on the ground.