Despite the many amazing feats achieved by artificial intelligence, thinking critically and with an intuitive bent is not something that is commonly attributed to AI. The primary purpose of machine learning systems and artificial intelligence has not been to entirely replace human beings; instead, it offers the opportunity to reduce the cognitive load on an individual, allowing them to focus their attention on other areas. That being said, the potential impacts of AI on the processes of critical thinking and the ensuing judgments are of special interest since the recent spurt in the number of chatbots has caused considerable alarm and speculation among people. Thinking critically is among the core abilities that one develops during education. From solving problems in math to intuitively approaching social issues, critical thinking forms a quintessential portion of humanity’s existence.
The gradual integration of artificial intelligence into the numerous aspects of human life is bound to have a considerable degree of impact on how humans perform everyday tasks. Potential overreliance on these tools and the excessive usage of artificial intelligence in important tasks might affect the natural progression of human learning, ultimately impacting the faculties of critical thinking. Moreover, critical thinking is exactly what sets apart humans and machines. A blurred line between humans’ capacity for critical thinking and the mechanical functioning of a machine can have numerous unpredictable consequences. The below sections of the article explore the nature of critical thought, how AI impacts the equation, and the future of original thought in a world increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence and computing.
What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking develops through a complex mix of education, training, and innate capacity for original thought.
Critical thinking relates to the human ability to collate and understand information from numerous facts, observations, and arguments to form a coherent judgment. The ability to think critically comes through both training and education, alongside innate tendencies that shape an individual’s approach to various situations. Needless to say, critical thinking can be valuable in various situations that allow individuals to perform crucial tasks. Modern induction of computing tools and artificial intelligence has allowed humans to avoid information and sensory overload, enabling them to remain focused merely on the most important aspects of a particular task. Most AI tools have been primed to perform very specific functions that are predefined and the models pretrained. While this indicates that AI does indeed have some rudimentary capacity for thought, it does not compare with the complex organic and emergent processes that define human cognition and learning.
AI and Critical Thinking
Despite recognition of patterns, AI’s capacity for computing is heavily reliant on human programming.
Modern artificial intelligence is based on complex models made from neural networks. Despite drawing inspiration from the human brain and mimicking neurons with nodes, neural networks pale in comparison to the complexity of the human brain. While networks can be trained with data to identify and specify certain patterns, these actions rely on repeated identification and sequencing to notice predefined patterns and those that bear similarities to the training parameters. Despite the networks being subjected to training on data sets, they will still have to be adjusted frequently by developers until accurate outputs are achieved. Moreover, generative artificial intelligence that functions on natural language processing merely restructures and represents information in a comprehensible manner for the user.
Models such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 that form the basis of ChatGPT are trained on limited data sets, making artificial intelligence merely a compiler and presenter of information, rather than an original creator. The ability to condense existing information and present them, while impressive, does not constitute the aspects of critical thought. However, it is also not uncommon for artificial intelligence to solve problems that have stumped humans for the longest time. This again relates to the innate programming of AI. Though such scenarios might appear to mimic critical and original thought, artificial intelligence merely identifies patterns and recognizes relationships between data sets based on its original programming. It often cannot go beyond its guardrails and abides only by the preset programming criteria. The core difference between human and machine learning lies in the tenets of supervision. While human learning often results from unsupervised trial and error, following which an individual learns to associate the right responses with the apt stimuli, AI to a major extent is guided, supervised, and programmed until it begins providing the accurate output.
The Influence of AI on Critical Thinking
Unrestricted AI deployment has the potential to undermine natural cognitive processes.
While it has always been understood that overreliance on technology can detrimentally impact normal human development, the recent upsurge of generative artificial intelligence can turn out to be an additional disruptor in this aspect. Though AI aids humans in complex tasks by taking on a share of the processing and computing tasks, extensive usage and the excessive implementation of automated tools can negatively impact the proficiency of individuals in their tasks. This is especially true in the case of students that are still in the various stages of learning and education. In the aftermath of the widespread boom of ChatGPT, various schools and universities witnessed widespread usage of the chatbot to cheat on assignments and tests. Not only does unrestricted AI use lead to circumventing the tenets of academic integrity, but it also impacts the progression of learning by denying students the incentive to put in the organic effort to learn something in a prescribed manner.
It is also important to understand that while AI is capable of storing and presenting vast databases of information, it is merely a supportive tool that is not innately designed to function independently. AI does not “understand” information in the ways that a human does. It merely sequences and cross-references data points to relate them with recognizable patterns and queries. Generative artificial intelligence is also prone to bias and a limited perspective, given that finite data sets can only encapsulate so much information. Consequently, AI is also given to hallucinating information, where it construes facts that do not exist. All of these points not only hint at the potential impact of artificial intelligence on education and critical thinking, but also reveal the insufficiency and the limitations of artificial intelligence in its current form. While it is apparent that technology will continue to improve and that over time advanced and autonomous technologies will slowly turn into a reality, the primacy of critical thinking must be emphasized to reinforce effective learning.