AI, and everything

I don't recall ever hearing the letters "A" and "I" being placed next to each other in conversation, in such quick succession as well that they seem to spill out as one word before 2022. And for some reason, I remember the first time that I did.

It was Novemeber, and I remember I had a trip to India planned for about three weeks out of the current day. Mentally checked out, responsibilities on the "new year, new me" burner, I placed a history report for the DAR on my teacher's desk and heard the intro of Home Alone play as I walked out of the class, done with my last big project before my trip.

My teacher had pulled a student aside, holding a report in her head and a serious expression on her face. "I know you didn't write this. I know what you write like it, and it isn't this." (paraphrased)

I wasn't sure what she was talking about, because the seventh-grade-class (to which the student belonged to) was maybe full of some 18 students, and with such a close teacher-student relationship, asking another student to write something for you was nothing short of ridiculous, since the handwriting would be easily distinguished. And in the event that the student was informing you of what to write, that would be authentic cheating, which has repercussions far worse than a B- in your report card.

I assumed that the 7th grade kid asked another student to help him write it, but I would never have predicted that a couple years later, so much of the world around me was asking that same student, that same "mind" to write everything for them.

That mind is none other than ChatGPT.