Society vs AI

By Julie Capkova

Imagine a world with access to endless information at your fingertips. A search tool, which acts as a reliable companion and even a therapist in your pocket, available at any time, day, or night. A partner ready to hear your problems and worries, ready to offer a kind word, to help write that email you have been dreading, or lend a helping hand with your course work from research to the actual essay writing. Welcome to the age of Al.

This era brings forward mixed feelings of great anticipations of new possibilities, as well as fear, concerns, and feelings of uncertainty. Alongside the environmental crisis, wars all around the world, and economic uncertainty, Al emerges as yet another force making the future even more unpredictable. How are we going to implement Al in our everyday lives and professions? How is it going to impact our relationships? And what are the costs of this new technological advancement? In the short period of time that Al has been a part of our lives, many have raised concerns regarding its usage. These include environmental costs, increased spread of disinformation, negative impact on interpersonal relationships and our increased dependency on Al.

The integration of Al has become an ever-present question in the context of higher education as well. This only reflects the wider debate in the world, regarding the usage of Al, and shows that no area of interest is spared. Academics, healthcare, science, businesses, and not even politics, with the introduction of the very first Al minister in Albania which took place in 2025. While this appointment was mostly symbolic, it still suggests the potential the technology brings. This further raises the question of what students should take away from their time at university. Traditionally, universities have prioritised essay writing, research, and critical engagements with complex academic texts. But what happens when those tasks can be easily outsourced to Al? If we let Al summarise the texts we read and write the answers for our seminars, what then is the point? 

At first, it might seem efficient. Why struggle through pages of a confusing academic text when you can have it summarised within seconds? Why bother writing anything if, with just a few prompts, your work is done for you? Yet then, over time, any space for critical thinking begins to shrink. Because how can anyone develop critical thinking or any sense of topics with more complexity, when they are not faced with challenging tasks? Writing is one of the best ways to develop a sense of critical thinking. It forces us to think thoroughly, present arguments carefully, and formulate our thoughts. Overall, critical thinking must be central to how we integrate Al into our lives. Especially with pictures and other content generated by Al spreading online, it is important to recognise what is real and what has been generated by AI.

Furthermore, interpersonal relationships are taking a hit by the emergence of Al as well. True, it is far from being the first technological advancement negatively impacting human relationships. These have been impacted by advancements like social media. However, Al only deepens this issue further. As people have been reporting increasing feelings of loneliness, many have turned to Al chatbots for help. Turning Al into trusted friends, therapists in our pockets, knowing their replies will seem kind, reassuring, and even understanding sounds like a bleak reality. The question is how dangerous this is.

What happens when emotional dependency on Al replaces human interaction? When is loneliness met with code rather than community?

In the end, it is crucial to remember that it is still a technology lacking any human empathy and experience. Despite the seemingly kind and understanding words generated on our screens, it would be dangerous to mistake it for our companion. Because in the end, this technology does not offer real empathy. It cannot be programmed into existence. Empathy only exists in human relationships. It is shared and lived.

Overall, we are living through a strange transitional moment where we are still learning about something major and new as well as learning to live alongside it. Because Al is not a passing trend. It has become a permanent part of modern life. Anything that we as a society decide on and establish as the norm will be taken for granted in the future. These turbulent times bring high stakes and give us the major responsibility of ensuring the kind of future in which we keep our critical thinking abilities, creativity, and independence.