The Death of Creativity
We have all heard about ChatGPT, which is basically a computer program developed by OpenAI that can generate sentences or text based on user interaction and questions. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence and refers to computer systems that are designed to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence. You can ask this AI for almost anything, the best brownie recipe, the answer to your calculus homework, an essay about the history of a cronut, and you can even ask it to pull a random quote from your favorite book.
ChatGPT is even capable of passing exams- recently, it passed a Wharton MBA exam. The Wharton MBA exam is used as part of the admissions process for the Master of Business Administration program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is considered to be one of the world’s most challenging exams. The test is designed to evaluate academic ability, problem-solving skills, and general understanding for graduate-level business studies.
Although this new, rapidly progressing technology is very impressive, controversies arise surrounding its role in plagiarism and the end to creativity. The problem with using this technology comes when you ask the AI to write text that is not yours. Since many people are turning to it as a tool for writing essays, poems, and other forms of creative expression, not only is that a form of plagiarism but it also means the death of creativity as we know it.
In our modern world, it is easy to rely on these ready-made phrases instead of coming up with our own unique words. However, it poses a risk of making our writing sound more formulaic and less original. Creativity and uniqueness is sucked from AI-generated writing which is why I believe that an AI which can write anything you could ever think of can never replace human minds and thoughts.
Although it may be tempting to steal a robot's words instead of using your own, our generation must step away from this urge. This new technology is dulling down creativity as people cannot think for themselves anymore. As a generation surrounded by new innovations, we cannot become too reliant on computer programs to speak for us. With the increasing use of technology to help us form sentences, we lose our sense of voice in our own pieces since the generated writing is less authentic, less personal, and less emotive.
We should use this new cutting edge technology as a tool but we cannot use it to replace our own unique creativity. I strongly believe that using this new technology for this purpose is dangerous but I understand that it’s very easy to just ask this AI for answers, ideas, and to be your voice.
And who knows, maybe I wrote this entire post using ChatGPT…
Maryan Kelada is a senior at Tottenville High School and a Next Gen Civic Fellow who has always been interested in politics and law and how it can be used to help those who are disadvantaged. Criminal justice and civic participation is something she would like to further study in college and ultimately pursue as a career.