An Underrated Risk of AI to Our Mental Health
As many of you know, I work with technology for a living. This affords me many, many opportunities to hear, think, and read about AI. It’s part of my day every day.
As someone who writes about mental health, I’m also always on the lookout for how this new technology may impact our mental health.
With that in mind, I saw this article, and even though it has nothing to do with AI, my mind put the two topics together. The reason I did is that one of the risks I often see about AI in the workplace is the loss of creativity. As people depend more and more on AI to write for them, create art and music for them, etc., we might lose those abilities. Yes, it’s much quicker to throw a graphic image together with a couple of AI prompts, but then you’re not practicing the art of photography, drawing, etc. The skills will erode over time.
Keep that in mind when reading this:
How creative arts therapies are helping young adults face mental health challenges
Creative work has therapeutic benefits. Doing the work is the point, not the end result. AI can get you the end result faster, but it takes away the healing power of doing the work ourselves. I do worry that we will lose that in the rush to monetize anything we create, quickly and efficiently.
There are fantastic benefits for our minds in doing the work ourselves. I use AI for many things, but I also know how much I enjoy taking pictures, writing, teaching, etc. Why would I deprive myself of things I enjoy? That’s part of being human.
