The AI Protocol

Ask Chat for some advice.

I’m not asking Chat for nothing. It’s artificial intelligence. Not Real.

That doesn’t mean it’s not helpful.

It can be. But I have my doubts.

The text message exchange continued with my sister. She tried to convince me to ask ChatGPT for parenting advice. Frustrated with my refusal, she asked Chat, and I lost another battle with AI.

Operation Avoid AI is a futile mission.

Everywhere we turn, AI greets us. Open Chrome and Gemini peeks over the browser’s tab. If we search Google for anything, an AI overview returns results.

AI can research, summarize, edit articles, and produce images. Apparently, it also offers parenting advice. The difficulties inherent to working and raising a family have vanished.

I’m joking. Parenting challenges everyone at some point.

However, if asked, AI will analyze problems and offer solutions. But our comfort with thinking less creates more danger.

We learn best through the struggle to grasp knowledge, fail, and develop skills. Acquiring, evaluating, and applying knowledge are difficult tasks.

Humans are hardwired to remember hard things. If we gain everything with ease, we risk significant societal setbacks.

Critical thinking and creativity are essential to change.

From school shootings in Oregon to riots in France and contaminated water in South Africa, we need the full capacity of our heads and hearts for solutions. AI can help, but it can’t lead our thought processes.

Many of us would lose our minds, figuratively and literally, if we went more than a few seconds without a phone.

We fear complicated tasks. Even the mundane job of responding to an email message from a friend or colleague is outsourced to AI.

Several people have asked me if I’m anti-AI. I respond the same way every time.

“No.”

If they probe further, I explain that AI is a useful tool to enhance our work. I use it to create images, edit writing, and search online.

This week I asked Co-pilot to verify the pathway to becoming a physician through the medical school where I work. I printed the reply, and my seasoned colleague verified its accuracy.

My employer encourages faculty to recognize AI as a teaching and advising resource. We don’t have an AI protocol, but our handbook describes responsible use and expects students, staff, and faculty to follow it.

Choosing to think without AI could save someone’s life.

Consider the case in which a man described symptoms to an AI chatbot instead of a physician. He delayed getting medical treatment for chest discomfort, which later led to chronic heart failure. The incident occurred as RFK Jr. and JD Vance argued that AI is a resource comparable to a medical doctor.

We need trained physicians who can listen with empathy, interpret test results, suggest lifestyle changes, perform surgeries, and prescribe medicine. AI can help them do their jobs, but it can’t replace them.

Most, if not all, medical students use AI to help them study. The challenge is that some ask AI to answer multiple-choice questions for them. AI should offer guidance for thinking through problems, not answers.

Students must grapple with concepts, ideas, and formulas to move the material from short-term to long-term memory. The ability to retain, reflect on, and retrieve information is fundamental to learning in and outside of the classroom.

Remember, without struggle, learning is less likely to occur.

AI is another tool in our handbook. I don’t look for it to solve every problem. Some challenges, like parenting teenagers, require a human touch and real intelligence.

For more commentary on AI, parenting, and education, subscribe here. To read my books, written without AI assistance, see this page.

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This post was previously published on Vernon C. Lindsay, PhD.

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