Unless you’ve been living under a rock far away from civilization, you’ve heard of artificial intelligence (AI). If you’re like most people, you probably have strong opinions about it. What fascinates me is how people who are similar in many ways can hold wildly different views on AI. Those differences are reflected in the title of this article—and, until recently, I was firmly on the skeptical end of the spectrum.
My own opinion on AI has been changing from very negative toward cautiously positive. That shift didn’t come from theory or hype, but from actually using AI. It doesn’t do my thinking for me, but it has sped the process up in noticeable and often helpful ways.
Before the computer age, research was painfully tedious. (Raise your hand if your only way to find library books was a card catalog.) With the arrival of computers in the latter half of the last century, the time it took to chase down facts shrank from weeks to days, then to hours, then minutes. AI represents the next step in that progression. It’s essentially a search engine on steroids, reducing the time needed to locate information to fractions of a second.
That speed matters because it changes how we spend our mental energy. Instead of hunting for information, we can devote more effort to evaluating it, understanding it, and connecting it to real‑world situations. Used well, AI makes research faster and less painful, allowing us to focus on judgment rather than retrieval.
Someone with the gift of understatement might say that AI is a revolutionary invention. About six hundred years ago, there was another invention that reshaped how people accessed information: the printing press. The parallels—and the differences—are worth considering. In preparing to write this article, I asked Microsoft’s Copilot to compare and contrast the printing press and AI. Within seconds, it produced a thoughtful, multi‑page response. What impressed me wasn’t originality or insight, but speed, organization, and clarity. The thinking still had to be mine; the tool simply accelerated the process.
That distinction is important. However advanced AI becomes, it will never be a thinking, feeling, or sentient being. It does not understand truth, wisdom, or meaning. It processes patterns and probabilities, nothing more. When people talk about AI as if it “knows,” “believes,” or “decides,” they are assigning human qualities to a tool—and that’s where misuse begins.
Used wisely, AI can sharpen our thinking. Used carelessly, it can dull it. The responsibility rests entirely with us. As with every powerful invention before it, AI demands discernment. Be careful out there—and above all, keep thinking.
Disclaimer: This article was enhanced with AI.
The aforementioned article from Copilot can be found here.