You may have asked for instructions on a new prescription or a second opinion on a difficult decision or medical opinion. What is certain is that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has penetrated our daily lives so quickly that for many the first move in the face of a small or big difficulty is now almost automatic: "let me ask ChatGPT".
Although its help is considered valuable, since it saves us time and money, it can also become irreplaceable, with all that this entails. Alice Boyes, Ph.D., a psychologist and author, describes in Psychology Today five subtle changes in thinking and emotion that, in her view, may occur with the extensive use of Artificial Intelligence.
As he points out, the increasing dependence on AI does not have to be interpreted as a personal weakness. Digital products are designed to be easy to use, attractive and increasingly integrated into our daily lives. The important thing, therefore, is to be able to recognize when their use begins to change small daily behaviours.
1. We don't trust ourselves so easily anymore
The first "bell", according to Boyes, can appear in very simple activities. We used to take notes from a presentation on our own, write a summary, or organize our thoughts. Now we may feel that the result won't be good enough if it doesn't go through AI first.
She even gives an example from her own practice: "I still have a lot of confidence in writing articles without AI, but I have lost my confidence in taking my own notes," she admits. The issue is not the use of a useful tool, but the possibility that we will gradually begin to lose confidence in skills we already have.
2. We insist on Artificial Intelligence even when we would finish faster on our own
When was the last time you spent a lot of time changing, rephrasing instructions, trying to get a chatbot to complete a task that you would have already finished on your own? Boyes points out that there are still several tasks in which humans perform better than AI.
Particularly vulnerable to this trap can be, according to her, those who find it difficult to accept mistakes or imperfections and feel that they need AI at every stage of their work for extra control.
3. We are anxious about the possibility of changing our favourite tool
The more dependent our daily lives are on AI, the more reasonable it becomes to worry about what will happen if they change. As he explains, a new model that works differently, a change in fees or terms of use, but also privacy or intellectual property issues can cause insecurity. For her, this concern may be another indication of the extent to which we have begun to rely on this tool.
4. We start to see people... like a chatbot
A more bizarre sign appears when long hours of contact with AI begin to affect how we interpret people's behaviours. Maybe, for example, a reaction of the child, partner or a colleague suddenly reminds us of the way in which a certain model of Artificial Intelligence "behaves".
Boyes likens the phenomenon to what can happen after many hours of playing a video game: we begin to look at real-life situations through the mental framework of the digital world in which we are immersed.
5. We talk abruptly in AI but also in real life
Communicating with a chatbot is different from human communication. But when we spend many hours giving sharp commands and get annoyed because the system doesn't respond as we expected, the tension may not stop when we turn off the computer.
According to Boyes, anger and frustration can be "transferred" from one environment to another. So, after a tiring and frustrating interaction with AI, we can become more abrupt with a colleague or with people in our family.
How we don't fall into the trap
The solution, according to the psychologist, is not to stop using Artificial Intelligence. The first step is to observe how it affects the way we think and feel. A simple strategy is to consciously continue doing certain tasks as before: taking notes on our own, organizing our thoughts, or first trying to solve a problem without the help of a chatbot.
Boyes also suggests that we set a time limit on our AI efforts, but also that we don't depend solely on a specific model or company. Even a short break between an irritating interaction with AI and our contact with other people can be helpful, so that the tension does not pass from the screen to our daily lives.
"When we identify a problem and properly understand what is causing it, the solutions usually become much more apparent. The most important tool is metacognitive awareness: the ability to observe how our thinking and emotions change, when it happens, and why. Once we have this awareness, it doesn't take much creativity to find strategies that directly target the real cause of the problem," he concludes.
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