Curb Your Enthusiasm: Just Because AI Can Doesn’t Mean It Should

Ah, artificial intelligence. The tech world’s favourite shiny new toy. With every passing day, it seems like AI unlocks some new skill that makes us simultaneously gasp in awe and cringe with existential dread. It can write novels! Compose symphonies! Paint masterpieces! Cure diseases! But also… make deepfakes, spread disinformation faster than a high school rumour, and automate humanity right out of its own labour market.

It’s like that overachieving kid in school who not only aced every test but also insisted on reminding everyone else how badly they were doing in comparison. AI has become the know-it-all who interrupts your dinner party with, “Actually, I could write this op-ed for you.” And yes, it could. And, maybe it did? Who knows?

But here’s the catch: just because it can doesn’t mean it should.

We’re at an inflection point where society needs to pause and ask, “Do we really need AI generating birthday poems, bespoke pizza recipes, or yet another chatbot for our customer service headaches?” These tools are impressive, no doubt, but are they always necessary?

Spoiler alert: they’re not.

At its best, AI has the potential to be humanity’s learning companion—a virtual Socrates to our Plato. It can guide, question, and expand our understanding of the world, helping us learn faster and better. Instead, many of us treat it like a magical vending machine: punch in a prompt, and out pops a perfectly tailored solution. This shortcut mentality risks eroding the critical thinking skills and creative processes that make us, well, human.

[Sidebar: Evolutionary biologists say that out brains will get smaller? Did anyone ever watch Bettlejuice? UGLY!!]

Let’s not kid ourselves. Over-reliance on AI for trivial tasks and creative outputs is like giving everyone a Lamborghini in a world where we’ve yet to learn how to drive a manual car. We’re accelerating into a future we’re not even prepared to navigate.

The real value of AI isn’t in doing the work for us but in doing the work with us. Picture this: AI as your slightly obnoxious yet brilliant coworker who pushes you to think harder, dig deeper, and see things from a fresh perspective. It’s not about outsourcing creativity but enhancing it. Imagine using AI to co-create, to refine your ideas rather than replace them. That’s where the magic happens—not in giving the machine the wheel but in using it as a GPS for the journey.

And yet, we persist. AI tools are used to generate corporate emails with the emotional depth of a paperclip and produce hyperrealistic art that no one asked for, and frankly, no one even likes (Nota Bene, agency peeps). All the while, these capabilities are marketed to us with the same unrelenting enthusiasm as a late-night infomercial. “But wait, there’s more!” they cry, as we collectively roll our eyes and wonder if anyone remembers how to think anymore.

This is not a call to smash our computers and light torches in protest. It’s a plea for balance, for nuance, for a little less of the over-the-top exuberance that leads us to treat AI like a deity rather than a tool. Let’s stop worshipping what it can do and start focusing on what it should do.

Because if we don’t? Well, we’ll all just be sitting in our AI-generated living rooms, sipping our AI-designed cocktails, and wondering why life feels oddly hollow.

So, curb your enthusiasm, humanity. AI is amazing, but let’s not let it run the show. We’ve got this—we just need to remember how to keep it human.

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Opinion