The development of artificial intelligence has majorly increased within the last couple of years with products like ChatGPT and Sora leading the market. AI has become a multibillion dollar industry influencing millions with each action. I find that there should be specific boundaries set in place so that AI models such as ChatGPT don’t ruin human development.
AI technologies have evolved from simple algorithmic sorters, to full-on textual and video generators that have further evolved past human ability. A good example of how much AI has been embedded within people’s lives is Google AI that shows up with every search. Each Google AI response reads through the majority of links on whatever subject in a matter of seconds, and provides a simple paragraph to describe it. This is troubling because the AI can often be wrong and misinform whoever is researching.
Having AI so deeply impact our lives is a universal fear that even the CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman willingly talks about. “I worry that as models get better and better, the users can have less and less of their own discriminating thought process,” Altman said in an appearance before Congress on May 16th, 2023.
I personally agree with this statement because there are other technological examples of people’s learning capabilities decreasing, such as social media or television. There are certain benefits to having simpler ways of doing things, but only to certain extents. Using whatever technology too much can develop a reliance on it, diminishing a person’s understanding.
While there are often clear signs that something is artificially made, the once-cornerstone identifiers have decreased, as AI industries have developed. An example of this can be seen when looking at older AI videos like “The Rock Eating Rocks,” which illustrate barely recognizable human looking things, and comparing them to modern Sora or Veo videos, which can and have directly replicated assorted animation styles, seamlessly showing just how realistic AI videos have become. Not only is the quality of the Sora and Veo videos better, but the visual appearance of the more modern videos seem less artificial, providing a more realistic piece that is harder to discern as AI-create. This means these videos could be used to misinform and spread general harm. General scams now consist of sending AI videos on Facebook just realistic enough to trick the elderly, but even people who consider themselves technologically advanced have lost their understanding as AI evolves.
Having less and less discernible AI has caused more AI accounts to thrive across social media, especially considering audiences who are either too old to tell that a video might be AI, or too young to understand it. This allows accounts full of AI content to profit due to how the algorithm sorts their videos. This stream of AI content continues to grow and spread past its original audience and starts getting put into the feed of others, even if they happen to dislike the content. There are also other AI accounts that are used to promote the fake channel, creating a cycle in which the AI develops itself without the influence of outside human activity.
A good example of a channel that does this exact thing is an account by the name of “Kwebbelkup.” This account used to be the home to many Minecraft related gameplay videos, but has within recent years become a highlight of completely AI-driven content. Modern Kwebbelkup videos consist of an AI avatar reacting to AI videos reading an AI script with flashy images to catch younger audiences. There are other examples of shortform content that presents itself in a similar manner, but those videos aren’t as easily produced as AI content. This sort of content indirectly seems to develop inattentive behaviors within the minds of children due to how pointless and accessible it is. There have been direct correlations to short form content and inattentiveness, as proven in a Thai study from 2023-2024 about shortform content’s effect on children around 6-12 years old. In the study, parents and guardians were presented with a survey on how inattentive their child was during assorted medical visits. The study showed that children with higher shortform screentime averages, especially at younger ages around 6 or so, were viewed as more inattentive by their family. With AI content, this will only become more extreme within its outcomes.
As these AI models advance further, there have become clear changes within people’s behavior. Due to further AI installations, people have lost reasoning for personal creativity due to how AI can be used more frequently. I fear a future where AI restricts most people’s creativity and like inhibitions, for there will likely be lasting effects AI has upon the world. Already, major companies like Progressive and Coca-Cola are using AI generated advertisements instead of funding advertisers. Most AI modules can replicate human ingenuity way more accurately than average people. Sora AI can directly recreate different animation styles such as Studio Ghibli much faster than their entire animating team.
Even through the relative recency of most major AI, there have still been clear cultural impacts that will likely continue to ripple as the future years pass by. As AI advances more and more, artists and writers have lost their jobs due to cheaper artificial sources. Having AI replicate their art online can decrease their revenue, with examples such as Greg Rutowski and Reid Southen, who both had their art taken by AI image generators. I don’t personally have any major ties to AI, but as a person who could make a living off of a job that won’t exist due to AI, it is a deep concern for me. Through using such technologies, we seem to lose certain aspects of our humanity in order to fulfill a simpler life, and this is even more pertinent when what people choose to entertain themselves with is completely devoid of human attachment.
AI impacts so many aspects of our lives that many news sources seem to stick to AI-specific topics due to how consistently it changes. This isn’t a universal truth, for there are assorted platforms that might discuss different topics, but most areas of news have information about AI bleed through in one way or another. When looking over the New York Times online articles, which don’t use any aspects of AI within article writing, I was able to find over 100 informative and feature articles centered around AI within the year 2025. In comparison, most years before 2023 only have a couple dozen articles centered around general AI topics. This increase in media input about AI has helped people understand it, but has also put a larger emphasis on the technologies and how efficient they are creatively. Most AI is susceptible to misinformation, and it is a common occurrence where the AI will make up information called an “AI Hallucination”. A person might ask an AI chatbot about something that never happened and the AI would likely confidently respond with even more nonsense. These “AI Hallucinations” have actually become more prominent as the AI generations become more advanced. Based on a Pew Research Center article, OpenAI’s version o3 has over roughly double the amount of hallucinated errors as its previous rendition. I haven’t personally used AI for information, but as a person who is around a lot of people who do, I have seen people who don’t focus on what is reliable. Most people I know occasionally use AI ironically, but for people like my parents who can’t always detect what is developed by AI, understanding it can be more of a struggle.
The education system has been deeply altered by technological advancements, especially after events such as COVID-19, which put a further emphasis on technology for learning. Other formats of technology, such as Google Classroom and Chromebooks, helped introduce the Internet into education roughly a decade ago. I personally cannot remember learning before 2015, and even though I may not particularly like all aspects of online learning, it has definitely changed how I perceive education. Through these developments, AI has thrived within academics, and students have in turn lost their general understanding of things due to the ease of AI. I have personally been tempted to use simpler AI routes, but most schools run AI detection software so most efforts would be futile, but that hasn’t stopped other students. According to a New York Times article from early 2025, over a quarter of students openly admitted to using AI for their schoolwork, and that isn’t even considering those who used it secretly.
Students are some of the most affected by the use of AI software, especially when engaging with multiple mediums of it daily. Platforms like Tik Tok have over a billion AI videos, as predicted in a The Guardian article, and the number continues to grow. Soon enough students will completely rely upon AI for any task required due to how relevant it is within society. Students will lose their ability to cognitively develop and understand things as thinking for oneself becomes taboo. With a generational lack of comprehensive abilities, major industries die off because there is no one mentally fit to control.
