Problematizing the Mind

                                                  (image: youtube.com)

Kinopya tanan!

There is a current movement among the literati and other academicians that Artificial Intelligence (AI) must not be considered as intelligence at all. The Guardian (2023) reported: The early AI systems were heavily dominated by rules and programs, so some talk of “artificiality” was at least justified. But those of today, including everyone’s favorite, ChatGPT, draw their strength from the work of real humans: artists, musicians, programmers and writers whose creative and professional output is now appropriated in the name of saving civilisation.

At best, this is “non-artificial intelligence.”

Critics have pointed out that intelligence is not just about pattern-matching. Equally important is the ability to draw generalizations and argue on aspects inconsistent to prior knowledge.

There are people we know who are so dependent with the ideas and concepts they copy from sources to the point that they sound intelligent. Yet the core of the matter is that they are only copying such ideas and feigning it as theirs.

Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. Some of the many different cognitive processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem-solving (Cherry, 2023).

Thinking is a developed skill which requires a lot of mental calisthenics for the brain to be attuned to the cognition process. If the individual is not exposing the self to thinking processes, it won’t reach the level of critical thinking. If all are ideas are copied and pattern-matched, we cannot also consider that as intelligence per se. It can be considered as a skill and not a product of cognitive process.

Cognitive distraction happens when multitasking interferes with the processing of information in the brain, like when we scroll social media sites while we are supposed to be engaged in a discussion.

Disruptive effects of distraction on recall of words, objects and events, also on visual processing, category formation and other cognitive tasks are caused by the habit of “gadget use”. The ability to think and develop intelligence will then be adversely affected.

We only can reach the level of cognition when we won’t get lazy enough to have mental workouts.