Using AI Responsibly: A Personal Perspective
Meilan Cobb
When I opened Microsoft 365 initially to write this essay, I was met with Copilot, an AI chatbot. There, before I could even open my document to begin. After which, I opened Google Docs to write this essay instead, but sitting in the corner is another AI assistant. When I was curious about what format would be best for this essay, all I had to do was search on Google, and an AI result to my question is sitting there ready for use. If you have modern technology, chances are you have AI presented to you multiple times a day. It’s impossible to avoid even if you wanted to.
AI sits at our fingertips; how do we deal with it responsibly? Don’t give in. You don’t have to give in to every easy solution AI presents to you. Don’t let it steal the joy that is being human. You can write your own song lyrics, paint your own pictures, write your own stories; these are passions for a reason. Humans have spent centuries fighting to create, and in a time when it is so easily accessible to everyone, why give it up? Creating can be difficult, so can many parts of life. It would be easier if you didn’t have to figure out how to make that piece of art. Life would be simpler if you didn't have to write that email, text message, or even all those college essay, but once you automate every uncomfortable, hard, boring, or unpleasant part of your life, suddenly you have very few experiences left.
This doesn’t mean AI is an unusable technology. Like any advancement in technology, it has its place. AI doesn’t need to generate a drawing; instead, it could give you the prompt. It doesn’t need to write your story for you; it can provide synonyms for a word you want to replace. It also doesn’t need to write your whole essay; it can simply do the grammar and spell check. Everything you do gives you the experience to do it better next time. Writing a million college essays or a million meaningless emails. Sitting down and struggling to create until you get it right, even if it takes years. Doing hard things, being uncomfortable, is a skill. How can we expect to do anything hard when we can’t even sit ourselves down to create what we want or write a two-minute email?
Human life is the culmination of experiences and moments, good and bad. I’m glad I made years of imperfect art, horrible stories, and badly worded college essays. I would not trade a moment of those over to AI. At the end of my life, all my art, work, and words will be accredited to me. We should make mistakes, create the hard way, and cherish all of it because it will all be ours. That is how I believe we should use AI responsibly, by using it as what it is meant to be: a tool.
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