Our Minds vs. Machines: How Is Artificial Intelligence Affecting Human Thinking?

02 Dec 2024 Modern technologies and artificial intelligence applications have become an integral part of our daily lives, and artificial intelligence (AI) programs have become a major element in facilitating our lives and performing many tasks and tasks, some of which were difficult for some.

But with all these benefits and advantages come urgent questions about the impact of this increasing reliance on artificial intelligence on our mental abilities, such as intelligence, innovation, attention, perception, memory, thinking and other mental abilities, which raises a number of questions, the most important of which is: Are we on the verge of facing a mental disability due to the failure to use natural mental abilities and reliance on artificial intelligence and its various technologies?

 

The impact of artificial intelligence on mental abilities

Over-reliance on smart technology and AI techniques may lead to a decline in some basic mental abilities, such as the use of generative AI in administrative and academic tasks and work, instead of the individual relying on his mental abilities to think, solve problems, create and remember; as not using these abilities may lead to their weakening or limitation. The negative effects of relying on AI techniques and disrupting mental abilities can be explained in the following points:

Over-reliance on AI technologies
Over-reliance on AI systems to perform tasks that are purely human-enabled could undermine our cognitive skills, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, memory, language, and other mental abilities.

Weak individual innovation capabilities
AI tools that provide ready-made suggestions limit our ability to think independently, generate new ideas, and innovative solutions. AI technologies are capable of producing innovative works. This can discourage humans from creating on their own, as they feel that what AI produces may exceed their mental capabilities. Over time, this could lead to a decline in the level of human innovation and creativity .

 Impact on learning skills
Relying on AI tools to search and retrieve information may undermine self-learning skills, such as searching, analyzing, and evaluating information .

 

Are we at risk of mental disability due to reliance on artificial intelligence?

The term "mental disability" here does not necessarily refer to a medical condition, but rather is a metaphor for the decline in mental and intellectual abilities; excessive reliance on artificial intelligence can weaken the mind, just as stopping exercise causes atrophy and weakness in the body's muscles, which is what happens as a result of not using mental abilities, so a person quickly becomes atrophied, weak and unable to perform mental functions. Imagine the difference between a normal person and a mathematician, who is faster and more accurate in performing calculations? A mathematician is definitely faster and more accurate, and the problem is that we often do not realize that this decline is a weakness in mental abilities until it is too late, and what is more difficult is that artificial intelligence technologies may stop for any reason after a person has become accustomed to relying on them completely.

 

How can we avoid the negative effects of artificial intelligence?

There are a set of recommendations to avoid the negative effects of excessive reliance on artificial intelligence, the most prominent of which are:

 Balance: We must achieve a balance between using technology and developing our mental skills. This can be achieved by practicing activities that require critical and creative thinking, and limiting the use of artificial intelligence to necessary cases .
 Education and awareness : Awareness must be spread about the potential risks of artificial intelligence on mental abilities, and educational programs can help promote critical thinking among individuals .
 Human Interaction: Technology cannot replace human interaction, but social relationships and personal communication must be maintained to improve mental abilities .
 Self-challenge: We should constantly challenge ourselves to learn new skills, develop our mental abilities away from technology, or at the very least define the role of technology in our lives .
 

Finally , Allah - Glory be to Him - created man and honored him over other creatures. Rather, He subjected the universe and everything in it to serve him and guide him to the Great Creator. One of the greatest aspects of Allah's honoring of man is that He gave him a mind by which he is guided to distinguish between what harms him and what benefits him, and through which he reaches the firm belief that this universe has a wonderful Creator, and a Lord who alone deserves to be worshipped, with no partner. One of the signs of man's maturity and the perfection of his mind is his taking the causes of development and progress and using the inventions and discoveries that his mind, thinking, and experiences guide him to, while preserving that jewel that Allah has deposited in him, and one of the secrets of the divine miracle in creation. Therefore, dealing with modern technology, artificial intelligence programs, and their various applications cannot be a justification for disabling the human mind, relying on the results of those applications, being carried away by the information they produce, and surrendering to machines, forgetting that their invention and invention were only created by the mind and thinking, which is the place of the mind.