Tallahassee, Florida

Life hasn’t always been colorful. Especially in Garly Hills. The news was flooded with reports about school shootings every other day. Toppled with the recent disappearances and floods made for the perfect ingredients of disaster. Truly a black and white portrait. Though most schools tried to make up for their actions: recompensing for the families who longed for their losses and settling any legal cases which may give them a bad name. There was one that stood out. Hallingtop Park Academy. The school reeked of bad influences. Bullies. Unprofessional staff. A Lack of Maintenance. Everything checked for a school not to send your kid to. Yet just as there was so much salt layered onto the school, there were bits and pieces of sugar to soothe the taste. Throughout the empty halls, the sounds of scribbling echoed. Inside one of the classrooms, Lucy Admins were practicing her craft as usual, scribbling in her notebook and erasing whenever she made a mistake. She furrowed her brow in remembrance of the conversation she had earlier.

“An A.I. chatbot? Isn’t that one of those cash grabs that some of those scammers are putting up?”

“No, it’s real. Look!” the student shoved the phone in the other student’s face. “And it’s free.”

“Free?” the other student eyebrow rose.

It wasn’t long till another new tech was discovered. Another cheat sheet, Lucy thought. Apparently the name of this one was called ChatGPT, an A.I tech which looked to solve the world’s problems… of laziness of course. However, it wasn’t like Quizlet or Chegg. From the number of students using it with the increasing amount of executive board meetings, it was clear this thing was the real deal.

“Say less, I’m bout to use this to type up my paper, you just saved me an hour’s worth of reading.” 

The students’ laughter would send a migraine to Lucy’s cognitive.

To her, education was the world. She practically dedicated her life to school: avoiding trouble, staying in good standing with teachers, and avoiding bad influences all around. The thought of her education being on par with those on that calibur caused her thumb to snap her pencil. Eventually replacing it. Exhausted from all the thoughts, she decides to end the hype.

She pulls out her HP laptop and loads her browser. She knew that because it was after school that the servers would be free to use and experience little lag. Surely enough she found herself on the website typing away. She tried mediocre topics: Describe the interaction of a dog meeting a cat on the sidewalk, or describe a scene where a mother is reunited with her long lost son or something of that nature. And she expected: mediocre responses. She sighed for a bit before typing again. This time, she was planning to write a story where a WW2 vet, dealing with PTSD, was put in a real time sitcom. Sure enough, it took a few minutes but it started writing. Lucy’s eyes widened by the amazement as the story came to fruition. The story was basic, but it had potential. Lucy tapped her finger on the cursor before typing again. She began writing. A smile started to creep onto her face, she was beginning to see the potential in what she could make an influence on her writing. She then stopped. Pausing as she shut off her computer, slamming it shut. 

She had thoughts about opening the laptop again, yet she decided against it. She then picked up her pencil again and she began scribbling once more. 

“I’ll find my own way”, she thought.

Reflection:

When I first started writing this, I was stuck between incorporating a horror scene or a comedic one. But over time as I started doing prompts as well as using ChatGPT more, It all came to me that what I should implement was the sensation of art. I wanted the story to be a reflection of my perspective in ChatGPT. While writing it, I leaned into the dystopian perspective, incorporating things in which may seem dark and lost but opens up a possibility of what ifs in which the author could go off of.

When thinking about “my muse”, I didn’t think too much about it. To be honest, it sounded more like a ingredient or something that was used for something particular. However, upon closer examination and even writing this, it felt like a reflection of sorts. When looking at the definition and looking at the author in which it was based on, it was a combination of things. However one thing that stood out to me the most was that of grief. The factor in using things that bothered and perpetuating that in my writing. I never wrote things about sadness as it often made me think deeply about the life I was living and force me into a state of mind in which was hard to grapple with. However, it was necessary. As for writers, you have to have a balance between the two. The madness that seeps through your core and the pure essence in that you wish to create. I found that if I couldn’t write about the negatives, I wouldn’t be able to become the writer that I wanted to be. Like most things in life, A writer must go through challenges in order to reveal the deeper aspects of themselves.

In the article, “Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Humans“, it discusses how it will make humanity better off in life, while the effects it may cause in which how it’ll affect our everyday lifestyle. While this may seem like a issue, I feel that the problem isn’t the A.I., but the dopamine in which the A.I. sends us when we use the material. We consume media almost everyday and it affects us on a grand scale. So much so that many of us will consume it for hours on end and waste days being on social media. Some may use it in a way to avoid social interaction because they don’t want to confront the person. Which is sad, if I’m being frank, but is true nonetheless. Now with things such as Tik Tok and Instagram plaguing our minds, it’s becoming evident that our attention spans in shortening in the process and the constant need to consume media increases. Though I was born in this generation, I tend to tread carefully consuming media, because it can affect how we view things in life. Take for instance, a sheltered child. You could give a child technology to interact and be missing life experiences that should’ve been incorporated at an early age. This can hurt the child in the long run and even cause developmental issues which can occur at an later stage in his life. Nevertheless, we must understand the importance in which A.I. has upon our lives and see to the value in which it may affect our mindsets. For if we go fully digital, what we be left in which we can call organic?

In the article, “Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Humans“, it discusses how it will make humanity better off in life, while the effects it may cause in which how it’ll affect our everyday lifestyle. While this may seem like a issue, I feel that the problem isn’t the A.I., but the dopamine in which the A.I. sends us when we use the material. We consume media almost everyday and it affects us on a grand scale. So much so that many of us will consume it for hours on end and waste days being on social media. Some may use it in a way to avoid social interaction because they don’t want to confront the person. Which is sad, if I’m being frank, but is true nonetheless. Now with things such as Tik Tok and Instagram plaguing our minds, it’s becoming evident that our attention spans in shortening in the process and the constant need to consume media increases. Though I was born in this generation, I tend to tread carefully consuming media, because it can affect how we view things in life. Take for instance, a sheltered child. You could give a child technology to interact and be missing life experiences that should’ve been incorporated at an early age. This can hurt the child in the long run and even cause developmental issues which can occur at an later stage in his life. Nevertheless, we must understand the importance in which A.I. has upon our lives and see to the value in which it may affect our mindsets. For if we go fully digital, what we be left in which we can call organic?

“Poetry … is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own.” Salvatore Quasimodo.

It’s a Friday night. You just got back from your day job at Wal-Mart. It was long since your manager had you running around for the short staff today. You take a seat, arms folded behind your back as you take a breath as you recollect your thought process. One comes to mind, an old poem which you were neglecting to write ever since you joined this job. You can’t remember the last time you picked up your pencil and started writing. You turn your seat towards your desk as your start scribbling away. Some thoughts come in mind, possibilities about your experience working thus far, a love poem about a future potential partner that you may meet, and even that of a self reflection. However, despite your advances, you find your mind stagnated. You groaned, scratching your head as you pull up your laptop trying to find ideas online. Some doesn’t appeal to you, while some make you question what the author was thinking making this. Before you quit and rest your head upon the computer, you see a post. Is ChatGPT replacing writers? Confused, you look into the post. It seemed the writer had concerns on whether it would replace the originality of the mind. Being curious, you search it up to test out the theory.

Art can mean a combinations of things, whether its beauty or symbolic or even a representation of nature itself. It all can vary and have different meanings for themselves. For me personally, while I do enjoy the benefits of the new A.I. art and the potential we can exploit with it, It wouldn’t fare against the natural aesthetics art have to offer. It’s a unique thing to have art and the way that it shaped up to be. Undermining that will only just undervalue the beauty in which art was made to be.

I was 17 when I first entered Bethel Israel Medical Center. I didn’t know what was more embarrassing. Writing a suicide note within the teacher’s peripheral vision or being subjected in a room that resembled a jail cell. I didn’t really know what to think but remember the pain and regret of the choices I made up a few days ago. Thinking back on it, and reflecting, It all felt like an overarching pain. Something that would remind itself every once in a while and keep pushing against me. I would get introduced to the concept of journaling next year by a therapist. It didn’t register to me, as I used to use music and entertainment as a way to block that pain out. I started journaling when I was 19, as a way of documenting my days and nights and what was going on around me. However, as the daily stresses of college started to waver on me, I eventually started to implement emotions into my logs. When reading the “The Body Keeps Score“, I couldn’t help but think how our bodies could keep tract of the stains of the body and how psychological everything really was. It wasn’t till I started journaling that I came to realize that factor and how those things impacted the human mind.

One key question in mind when reading the article was how does traumatic emotions translate through literature and how can we teach people to critically evaluate and self treat those emotions through writing? As with most people (myself included), inner wounds doesn’t disappear with a few days as those which are visible. We are only human. We have a limit to what we can handle. That said, it’s important that we take into effect what we’re required on doing and try to make the best out of it. Journaling may not always be the most helpful in navigating through problems, but it can be the first step in understanding those issues and cultivating them into a bigger perspective that we can understand.

While most focus on the Open A.I. being a threat towards the education system, there has been talks of it being used in an national perspective. Politics aside, I could see this being used in a way where there could be usage in the governmental structure of things. One thing that caught my attention was the predecessor of ChatGPT, GPT-3. This software, similar to ChatGPT, was able to generate prompts however it wasn’t limited to sexual exploitation and racial slurs, which may have not been safe for mass media. While this problem has been fixed, the lingering question of whether that sort of behavior may come back or not. What the bigger question is with the newly found A.I., can it be possible to exploit things such as bank records, and hack into information to reveal certain things that are excluded from the public’s eye. It’s not uncommon to hear this. Open A.I. uses data that rely on information from the web. You may post a picture or have a conversation that may have been five years back and it can copy and use it as a way of false usury. Or worse, it could take the voices of those in leadership and use it in a way to start conflict between nations. There have already been data in which A.I. took the forms of old presidents and current ones and have them collaborate with them as if they were all sitting down together. The possibilities can are overarching and can be used in different ways. While we haven’t gotten to that point, it could lead to serious harm if used in that way.

Another factor is that if they could replicate voices, who’s to say they couldn’t replicate a false phone call or have an effect on cyber bullying? There’s a lot of things to be consider for these types of things and rather it can be detrimental to say the least for not just faculty looking into it, but students who are born in this digital age. We can see the potential of students being influenced by this A.I. and basing their lives on this. Possibly making them inhuman towards their behavior and relying on short term dopamine spikes to function in society.

With technology increasing at a fast pace, the inevitable question presses upon us: How do we deal with this from an educational perspective. Horace Mann created what would be called the educational system back in 1837. What started as a standarized system, incorporated with hours of studying and days of understanding the material has been reduced with the digital age. While those traditional experiences still exist in society, they are very few to none as more schools are implementing digital spaces within their classrooms. While may be up for open arms welcoming these new inventions, some are held back, questioning the purpose for these software. This is understandable. With these technologies, they are capable of replacing people out of their jobs and causing a major uproar within the system. This could also potentially even exploit degrees which requires anything functioning online. Jobs such as IT, and E-Railing. The possibilities are endless. But how might these cause a disturbance in the school system? Well let’s examine.

During the time reading the article, a few similarities can into mind. The concept of professors struggling to adapt to the digital age, the curiosity of what this digital life entails, and of course, the students abusing this material to their advantage. What started as newly found material turned into a warzone in the educational department. Faculty has had more meetings now than ever with the introduction of this new technology. The idea of being replaced by a software created a few months ago by a degree and education under you for 30 years was horrifying. Who really knows what the future has in store for ChatGPT. There have been talks about implementing or changing the structure of the class, see article about “How Schools Should Respond to ChatGPT“. But in my perspective, I believe that this should approached on a lens with how the course is conducted.

As most courses, there is a lesson that is taught and guidelines that are used to instruct the course. With ChatGPT, it can implement styles of writing to where it can give writing using prompts. However, rather than trying to dismiss the technology and create barriers so that students can’t utilize it. We should encourage it in a manner where it challenges students to think outside the box and come up with a prompt to help them excel in their writing and think of something that hasn’t been generated before with the human mind. Technology isn’t slowing down, and the connection between A.I. and education becomes closer and closer. Thus, we should challenge our mindsets to create a world where we can still be organic in our thinking but use it in a different perspective.

When thinking about the concept “originality”, three things comes to mind: the purpose in what is being created, how it is being used, and what the source is. We’re always searching for the next big idea, the next big thing which would propagate the internet. However, those lines are constantly blurred as the years go by. More recently, what has been invented are the concept of “trends”. Like most social media, whenever a trend appears, there always seems to be those who try to go with the flow and follow what seems to be popular, in order to gain attention and popularity. So what does that say for the writer? When we first start writing, writers often mimic their favorite writers and implement their style of writing before finding their own voice. This often takes time: some may take months, some years. However, even those lines are being blurred with concepts such as Sudowrite and ChatGPT enhancing the writer’s ability. While this may not seem bad at first, the concept of using A.I. to write for you is almost like cheating on a state exam. No matter how you use it, there is no real gain using this material. No knowledge. No sources. No originality.

Reading “How to become a writer or, have you earned this cliché?“, I honestly couldn’t help but smile. It felt like I was reading a insight on my own life. The constant thoughts. The pressure of trying to find plots and avoid plot holes. Going over and beyond trying to find source material to use in the stories. But it all showed one thing: originality. It showed the struggles in the writer’s life: a person who was told to go on another path, but ended up on this path instead. The dark eyelids. No A.I. can truly replicate this sort of struggle to come to this thought process. It’s like any game. You start at the first level, doing good getting through obstacles. Then you reach a blockage, causing you to stumble. You try earnestly to move forward, despite the limitations. Almost like an adventure. You can’t replicate that with A.I.: because it is impossible to replicate emotions and feelings inside of their writing. They can only based on the thought the person gives it.

This follows into the next two articles, “Originality.ai 2023 Review” and “How to develop your writing voice”, which talks about developing your voice in writing and the purpose of originality. Often when we try to replicate this sort of behavior in today’s society, it’s frowned upon. Why create something when you can imitate the product and get faster results. It’s disheartening to see, however, we’re at a point in the digital age where anything can be replicated in mere seconds. You can create a 500 page novel in 3 days which the click of a button and even use dialect from famous authors, eating off of the pieces that they created.

In Conclusion, we need to focus on making content from the heart rather than allowing technology to do it for us. By allowing this to continue, we only further us down the path of education, making our mental capacity and attention span more and more smaller.

ChatGPT, like most things started with a simple thought. How can I make things easier for myself? or How can I be able to perform more efficiently in such a short amount of time? As the dawn of the digital life draws closer, we begin to examine what makes the writer a writer, and what makes the thoughts of the writer tick?

Reading through the articles, I felt a certain edge towards what was being described. Especially reading the Five Reasons why A.I. poses a threat towards writers, it dawned on me that human mind is starting to become something of a second nature. Thoughts could be replicated. The factor that even a A.I. can translate a post you make and mimic your voice through writing was a scary thought indeed. To think, writers using ChatGPT as their own little game, trying to find ways to shorten their workload and find a easier way to write. But what if writers were being caught and sucked into ChatGPT? Feeding it information and giving it sources to develop personalities of their own based on the messages we sent. With the amount of times we use technology, it has become integrated with our personalities, and has become one with us. What if we were just tiny insects on the web, the worldwide web, just waiting to be captured and mimic. Honestly, it’s scary to think but it does prove where the issue in society lies in. The question of whether we are consuming technology or whether technology is consuming us is the question.

In Technology Makes Us More Human, Hoffman brings up the concept of becoming a superman or even those a superior being with the benefits of technology like ChatGPT. While that would be a cool concept, the problem with that idea is that we’ll be loosing sight of what humanity is supposed to be. We’re here to learn, to experience, to wonder and explore the world and develop ourselves. If we intergrade this technology in our lives, who then would we become? We were born organic, yet we’re living an inorganic lifestyle indulging with mass media and allowing those things to become apart of us. We may have technology now and it may serve as entertainment towards us, but in the long run it will destroy us. Reject modernity, embrace nature. Turn off your phones.