Navigation can definitely do the same thing. My wife uses Google maps everywhere she goes, even to get to her own job or friends’ houses.
One time her phone died on her way back home from somewhere she doesn’t go very often, and she was crying by the time she found her way home. At the time we lived in a big city surrounded by a ring of highways - all she needed to do was drive toward the skyline and she’d hit that ring, but since she never thinks about what direction she’s going or where she needs to turn, the thought of making those decisions herself never entered her brain. Instead she stopped at a gas station, charged her phone for 30 minutes, and used navigation to get back.
I’ve never been much into using apps like that, but now I specifically avoid them, so that I can keep my own ability to think about those kinds of things.
Yeah I’m not suggesting using a maps app teaches route/wayfinding at all.
When it says to turn you still need to recognize the street direction, signs, signals, etc to decide you CAN turn that way and you also know when you’ve reached your destination because you’re where you need to be. It’s not probability and it can’t lie to you without you knowing. You still have to be a competent driver.
AI chats don’t have any indication of reasoning nor built-in fact checking. If you just want an answer you are not functionally obliged to check it, there is no built in safeguard.
In the same way navigation apps offload the skill of wayfinding, AI apps offload the skill of critical thinking.
Ah, yeah, that’s fair. They degenerate some of your decision making, but not to the point where you can’t drive at all. I think it’s still probability-based in the end, but not to the same extent as AI, like how it’s not going to tell you to drive onto a park trail the way AI might if it were in charge.
Navigation can definitely do the same thing. My wife uses Google maps everywhere she goes, even to get to her own job or friends’ houses.
One time her phone died on her way back home from somewhere she doesn’t go very often, and she was crying by the time she found her way home. At the time we lived in a big city surrounded by a ring of highways - all she needed to do was drive toward the skyline and she’d hit that ring, but since she never thinks about what direction she’s going or where she needs to turn, the thought of making those decisions herself never entered her brain. Instead she stopped at a gas station, charged her phone for 30 minutes, and used navigation to get back.
I’ve never been much into using apps like that, but now I specifically avoid them, so that I can keep my own ability to think about those kinds of things.
Yeah I’m not suggesting using a maps app teaches route/wayfinding at all.
When it says to turn you still need to recognize the street direction, signs, signals, etc to decide you CAN turn that way and you also know when you’ve reached your destination because you’re where you need to be. It’s not probability and it can’t lie to you without you knowing. You still have to be a competent driver.
AI chats don’t have any indication of reasoning nor built-in fact checking. If you just want an answer you are not functionally obliged to check it, there is no built in safeguard.
In the same way navigation apps offload the skill of wayfinding, AI apps offload the skill of critical thinking.
Ah, yeah, that’s fair. They degenerate some of your decision making, but not to the point where you can’t drive at all. I think it’s still probability-based in the end, but not to the same extent as AI, like how it’s not going to tell you to drive onto a park trail the way AI might if it were in charge.