Will AI drown originality in a sea of sameness?

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Wolfgang Messner, a professor at the University of South Carolina who studies the intersection of business and computer science, is worried that generative artificial intelligence is leading to the normalization of mediocrity in writing, ideas and reasoning.

There's a historical parallel with the Industrial Revolution, which transformed the world economy. Trade guilds and craftsmanship fell by the wayside, replaced by factories that could cheaply and efficiently churn out goods.

Today our homes are filled with mass-produced objects that are generally durable and pretty reliable – in other words, they're good enough. Handmade products and craftsmanship still exist, but they're niche and largely relegated to the margins of the economy.

The more we rely on AI in our everyday lives, Messner wonders if this same kind of transformation will happen to human cognition – if the use of "cognitive prosthetics" like ChatGPT will extinguish sparks of ingenuity in favor of content that's simply competent and passable. He points to studies showing AI may already be having this effect on writing, brainstorming and decision-making.

"What begins as a convenient shortcut," he writes, "risks becoming a self-reinforcing loop of diminishing originality – not because these tools produce objectively poor content, but because they quietly narrow the bandwidth of human creativity itself."

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Nick Lehr

Arts + Culture Editor

The Industrial Revolution mechanized production. Today, there's a similar risk with the automation of thought. kutaytanir/E+ via Getty Images

Is AI sparking a cognitive revolution that will lead to mediocrity and conformity?

Wolfgang Messner, University of South Carolina

During the Industrial Revolution, craftsmanship retreated to the margins. As AI becomes widely adopted, will the same happen to original thinking?

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