AI is theft of the mind

I recently discussed AI in the workplace with my manager. I had a growing sense that he's feeling the pressured to get on the AI train or be left behind. I prodded him with question about education but it didn't go anywhere. He interpreted my question was about AI in school. But I was more interested learning as a means of growing as a software engineer. You see, I look for the struggle, confusion and frustration that comes with not knowing how something works. Its when I actually engage with code in this way that I build a mental model of an architecture.

AI presents itself as a shortcut by leapfrogging to the solution -- all without you understanding how any of the pieces of code works in relation to the rest of the codebase. Like a parent, so very afraid of their child failing, will rescue any time their child is frustrated. In my view, this produces a weaker mind, a more ignorant knowledge worker, and a softer person.

I love learning. It's my only thing I am good at. Learning requires one to struggle. There's no shortcuts to that. An essay by James of Agentultra, on why he won't use AI deeply resonated with me. James on the joy of the struggle:

It is during the struggle that I learn the most and improve the most as a programmer. It is this struggle I crave. It is what I enjoy about programming.

Especially the boring parts. Working on the boring, rote code is where you learn patterns and understand when and how to refactor.

Ezra Klein on How I Write shares the same belief:

You can only make connections through grappling and struggling with text. Curiosity is the driver in expanding one's mind, even done poorly it's worth the pain of frustration and dissatisfaction. In engaging in a codebase, or subject for hours, it changes you. You grow. You learn. You struggle.

AI advocates usually gesture to technological improvement displacing the jobs of old such as the horse shit collector with new jobs, like factory car worker. What's interesting is that whoever is originally saying this is usually the wealthy man who owned the factory. In this case, though, it's the ravenous information thieves in Silicon Valley, promising turbo charge your programming game. It's a lie. AI is a theft of the mind. Again here's James view on labor and the promise of new jobs:

The Luddite movement is an interesting piece of history. People often remember the part about breaking machines in factories. Today, people refer to those who refuse to use new productivity-enhancing technology as, Luddites. But the movement was not about sabotage. At least, it had a purpose and sabotage was only one strategy used by people to try and enact change and gain bargaining power.

You see, there were no social policies or reforms in place to protect the rights of labourers during the industrial revolution in which the Luddite movement had formed. The people involved in the movement were skilled workers who used the machines they were destroying. They weren’t destroying the machines because they wanted everyone to make textiles by hand: they were protesting the fact that capital owners were extracting the wealth from their labour with this new technology and weren’t reinvesting it to protect the labourers displaced by it.

Today, AI technology is being used to replace labour power with capital. The knowledge work we do is being replaced with machines and algorithms by capital holders who want to own and rent out access to that knowledge. It’s cheaper, produces more value, and that new wealth is not turning into shorter working hours or supplementing any labourer’s income. That wealth is going into the hands of the ultra wealthy.

And there's the rub. Let's say the co-pilot tools do actually increase productivity. It isn't like workers see shorter hours or bigger paychecks. Folks like Mr. Bezos get richer with a smaller workforce doing more. What do we as workers get in return? Lesser benefits and 2% raise and another year maybe of employment.

We might trading something more than our time and efficiency. Our minds might get weaker as we rely on these AI tools to do the heavy lifting of thinking.