Gen Z vs AI

One of the biggest concerns or topics that come up in conversations about our futures with my friends and I is the increasing and overwhelming use of AI across all industries.

The fear of putting in all this work and effort

all to have your future career replaced by AI is a growing concern for many of Gen Z. Especially for those of us in university who are yet to finalise our majors or set ourselves on a career path, this fear is something that is underpinning many of the career decisions we make. Reports have found that more than 43% of Gen Z have adjusted their career plans because of the increasing use of AI. However, I have also noticed that us university students are one of the biggest users of AI. From asking ChatGPT to help us find synonyms to finish an assignment, to using AI to summarise the mass amount of content that we are required to learn, it has become an essential tool in our university lives.

So, how do we create distinctions between using AI as a tool and as an invisible force taking away our job opportunities?

While some university students are determined to completely boycott AI, others completely rely on the software to feed them information and answers directly. I believe that the most ideal use of AI should lie somewhere between the two extremes. In a report by McKinsey & Company, 85% of organisations had been found to have adopted AI in one way or another. This strongly indicates that boycotting AI completely will disadvantage current students in their future careers as companies integrate the tool into their processes.

On the other hand, relying completely on AI is equally as harmful. Even personally, I have heard from friends about their feelings of confusion and regret after relying on AI too much across different tasks. The overreliance on AI reduces personal learning and understanding without that feeling of engagement that you receive when completely tasks yourself. The distinction should be between how we use AI, rather than whether we use it or not. AI should be used to clarify learning, improve on existing ideas and to challenge our own thinking.

One of the many memes found across social media.....

This topic is one that could be the focus of many different articles. From how relationships with AI differ between younger and older generations to how it can be used to write content such as this article.

Ultimately, AI is something that is becoming more and more prevalent in the world around us. We need to learn how to adapt and use the tool mindfully, to improve our own learning and creativity, instead of using it to replace active thinking.

What do you think of your own use of AI? Do you believe that you are using it to maximise your own capabilities?