AI Slop is Ruining Your Brain
AI has come up a few times on this podcast, but I haven’t done a great job until now of discussing the drawbacks of using it. I’m not strongly pro or anti Artificial Intelligence, so it’s only fair that I spend some time and talk about the ways in which we might want to question our relationship to it.
In this episode, I share the problem of outsourcing our thinking to AI, when you shouldn’t use it, and also the downsides of using it for language learning.
AI Slop 🤖
Cheap, low-quality AI content is flooding the internet. Is that a problem?
The Downsides of AI 🧠
Are we losing the ability to think, create, and solve problems on our own?
Technology has always replaced skills. The real question is which ones are worth keeping.
What to Actually Use AI For ✅
Outsource the boring stuff: formatting, admin, repetitive tasks.
Keep the valuable stuff: opinions, creativity, decisions, anything where the thinking matters.
AI and Language Learning 🗣️
AI is a great tool for feedback, explanations and practice.
But don't let it replace real conversations, real struggle, or real memory.
The Bottom Line 💡
Don't ask "Can AI do this?" Ask "Should AI do this?"
⭐️ Transcript & Bonus Lesson
What are your views on AI?
Share your thoughts in the comments
My attitude towards AI
I am a daily and heavy user of AI, and I must admit that I am ashamed and at the same time unashamed of my attitude towards it.
I often feel embarrassed as I have not been able to take my English to the level where I, confident of my own abilities, might not depend on AI for improving my writing. At the same time, I feel it is perfectly fine for me to use it as I make a living through it as a translator. Besides, I make loads of spoken-English exercises for students. Honestly speaking, I do not fully understand my hate-love relationship with this technology.
Generally, first I do creative writing and then edit it with AI tools. Occasionally, I make just around one-minute audio recordings in the Meta of WhatsApp and then direct it to improve it.
Last but not least, because of excessive use of AI tools, my English writing ability has rusted since the advent of ChatGPT.
Note. This is my 100 per cent original writing in which I have not used AI.
Muhammad Hanif, an IELTS tutor
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Muhammad! I love the comment that you didn’t use AI for your writing here 😅 Maybe you’ll agree – as a teacher, I’m a big advocate of not using AI to correct writing like this. I use it for private corrections, but usually not for things like emails and public comments – maybe similar to you.
It’s interesting to hear your views on it and the pros and cons! I also feel that if it’s starting to make writing more efficient, that might be bad news for learning.