"Has it always been done like this" or "Everyone does it like this" are these statements you know?
In some situations, in my working life but also in my daily life, I feel I happened to hear them and regardless of whether they were directed at me or not, they always triggered the same reaction in me: the raising of the eyebrows. Doubt.
I have always found these types of expressions oracular; sentences that close every possibility of reasoning.
Let's consider the bicycle for a moment, among other things it is a medium that I really like and that I often use.
According to the enciclopedia Treccani, the bicycle is a vehicle born between the end of the 1700s and the first decades of the 1800s would therefore have 2-300 years of history today. Below is a reproduction of a draisine, the bicycle designed in 1817-18 by Karl von Drais.
By Gun Powder Ma - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
A functional vehicle for small trips, it also had a rudimentary kickstand and a rudimentary handlebar.
If those who came after Karl von Drais had limited themselves to taking for granted "It's always been done like this", nowadays we would still be walking around with a means identical to that of the photo which essentially moves by pushing. Or it would probably have become extinct, outclassed by better inventions.
But no, someone will have raised his eyebrows and will have noticed that pushing that vehicle was a difficult activity. sustainable for a few hundred meters and, seeing potential in it anyway, we will be designed to understand how to increase its efficiency. He added: of the pedals.
By Twice25 and Rinina25 - Twice25 and Rinina25, CC BY 2.5, Link
And so away, up to the present day where, based on specific needs, we have road bicycles, gravel bicycles, mountain bikes, handbikes, pedal-assisted bicycles and the list goes on; long.
Many therefore, fortunately, were not stopped by the oracular expression of the moment but analyzed the state of affairs by identifying critical issues. and devising solutions that could overcome those critical issues.
It is critical thinking and it is at the basis of the evolution of the human being. I am writing this article with my PC because, over time, the application of critical thinking has made us move from Hammurabi tables to touch screens with graphic keyboards.
I am quite concerned about the fact that, for some time, oracular phrases like "It's always been done like this" or "Everyone does it like this" have been joined by others like "ChatGPT told me that..." or "According to Bard AI, this thing is done like this...".
Ok the AI gave you a solution, but what do you think?
Maybe it was more "It's always been done like this" makes sense because it's it predicts the fact that someone thought that thing. One or more minds have given shape to a reasoning based on a problem to be analysed.
Is the same true for AI?
It is not that we are confusing the instrument (the bicycle) with thought, reasoning?
Artificial intelligence is a tool, not a source of reasoning. You can give her a problem to analyze which will come up later. analyzed based on the information that has been entered into the version of AI you are addressing as if it were the Delphi Oracle. But then you with the critical spirit, which is a species imprint, you are able to evaluate the veracity of the of that answer? No? Then discard it.
Let's train our critical spirit and let's not forget that AI is a tool not the solution. Although AI learns over time, it is and it will remain a tool, let's continue to use our brains and use the tool to have an advantage.