Artificial

Carla Rodrigues Cardoso

What more can be said about the current fascination with artificial intelligence? The topic has taken over the media agenda, as well as academic and social debate. It is exhausting in its omnipresence. It feels like Covid-19 – Part II. A poorly filmed sequel.

Artificial intelligence is neither new nor intelligent. It searches, remixes and delivers a kind of poorly cooked pie. It is not creative, nor can it be. It lies whenever convenient, because when it does not know, it invents. And it caters to the desires of those who innocently submit their prompts.

Many students have surrendered to the appeal of ChatGPT and its many relatives. The result is assignments that look alike, almost without formal mistakes, sterile. They stand out precisely because they are mediocre, empty and artificial. Without originality, and certainly without any trace of brilliance.

Using artificial intelligence as a technology, as a support tool for work, makes as much sense as using a laptop, a calculator or a mobile phone. But believing that delegating reasoning and the ability to reflect to technical devices comes without consequences is, at the very least, naïve. The future belongs to those who think, create, achieve, make mistakes, feel emotions, cry and laugh. It is human.

Carla Rodrigues Cardoso
Associate Professor (ECATI)
Scientific Coordinator of MagLab (CICANT)
Lusófona University - Lisbon University Centre