I've been thinking a lot about AI lately. Here's my current list of pros/cons:
Pros
I think all of the "pros" eventually come down to saving time.
- Offers access to important/helpful information and specialized help that might not otherwise be affordable or possible (e.g. tech troubleshooting, tutoring, retirement planning and money stuff, "how to")
- Summarizing and working with large quantities of information quickly, making it more useful for individuals and for organizations
- Can do menial tasks like formatting references, grammar/spell check, adjusting times/dates, etc. that don't seem like a good use of time
Cons
- Serious environmental consequences
- Often confidently incorrect
- Enables us to bypass important practices, such as deep/critical thinking possibly leading to "skill erosion"
- Ethical concerns about who/what is training the AI and how responses are curated
I swing back and forth about whether/how to work with AI in my personal and work life. In so many ways, I am in favor of doing hard work, or "slow work" and thinking for ourselves.
In other ways, I see the value and importance of these kinds of tools in both small- and large-scale endeavors to make life better and to increase access (for example, AI models are being used to fight climate change and to advance medical research).
I wonder sometimes if resisting AI is akin to refusing to use refrigeration or a washing machine. Am I out here metaphorically scrubbing my clothes in the river?
For now, I'm attempting to engage consciously. I've turned off AI summaries in search engines. I don't use AI to draft writing or to do core research for classes, etc. I am using it for specific tasks that save a substantial amount of time and that don't feel critical for me to do manually (summaries of mentoring sessions, transcriptions of online classes, review of contracts).
We've been talking about AI in Monday Mentoring sessions quite often over the last few months, and it's been interesting to hear more about how others are engaging (if they are) and what goes into these decisions. If you'd like to join these conversations and similar ones relevant to practicing clinicians, you can join Monday Mentoring this week 
Take care,
Camille
