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And so why should I care?

You may be asking, "Why should I care about this?", well to put it simply, artificial intelligence is the next big thing in technology. It seems like every social media app has some kind of artificial intelligence implemented for example, Spotify Wrapped was made with generative AI, and just look at how many people were disappointed at it. Or how most job applications aren't even checked by a real human, but by an artificial intelligence program, and these artificial intelligence programs are not the best choice to choose the applicants since this program is usually trained to look for certain criteria that are probably very irrelevant to the job. Since there is a huge dependency on artificial intelligence more and more of these problems are going to keep happening whether we like it or not. Companies and brands want to save money from the regular people who originally would be doing these jobs by creating an artificial intelligence bot to do it for them. Another example of this is online customer service, instead of talking to a regular person to get a more in-depth answer, nowadays there are only a handful of prompts about what the problem could be. There is rarely an actual person on the other side of that conversation. Eventually, we need to ask ourselves as artificial intelligence evolves, becomes smarter than humans, and then can do tasks that are "below" humans, how many human jobs will be lost to an AI? How would that affect the working class or the world? Will there ever be a point where artificial intelligence takes over the world? How far will artificial intelligence expand?

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In conclusion

In conclusion, artificial intelligence should not be heavily relied on since it is not always accurate. The dependency that humans have on artificial intelligence is harmful to themselves and others. This dependency can cause the user to gain or worsen mental health issues, a loss of judgment from humans, and a loss of important skills. These negative effects of human's dependency on artificial intelligence can be scary to think about. But ultimately it's the user who decides how much they use artificial intelligence, and what they use it for, but they should at least know what could happen if they over rely on it.

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On the other hand

On the other hand, there are upsides to using artificial intelligence in everyday life. It can boost efficiency and productivity since it doesn't take a long time to complete a task. It can identify patterns that go unnoticed by a person. As stated by Duggal (2024, "In the healthcare industry, AI assists doctors in diagnosing diseases. For example, AI algorithms can analyze medical images, such as X-rays or MRIs, to detect early signs of conditions like cancer. This not only helps in providing timely treatment but also reduces the likelihood of human error in diagnosis. By augmenting doctors' decision-making processes, AI improves patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare delivery." This kind of technology can help other people, and possibly save lives. It may not always be accurate, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be taken seriously if it can accurately output the correct information nine times out of ten. These could revolutionize the entire medical field, they cannot replace the human staff, but this kind of artificial intelligence can help save time that most patients don't have. AI companions are designed to provide emotional support and companionship to users. According to Sahota (2024), it's stated, "For some, AI companions can serve as a bridge to better emotional health. These AI systems provide a non-judgmental space for people to express themselves, which can be particularly valuable for those with social anxiety or other mental health challenges. Moreover, AI companions serve as a stepping stone, helping individuals develop social skills and confidence that can be transferred to human relationships." This could give those who have a social anxiety disorder or other mental health issues an outlet to help gain those skills until they feel confident to practice with a real person instead of an artificial intelligence. It's a small step for these people to take without the fear or judgment they might get from a human being. When artificial intelligence is used for the correct purpose, it's not harmful. Artificial intelligence does have a lot of great upsides to it, and how it can be used. It's when it's used for the wrong purposes, it gives artificial intelligence a bad name. It's up to the user how they use artificial intelligence.

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Works Cited

Ahmad, S.F., Han, H., Alam, M.M. et al. Impact of artificial intelligence on human loss in decision making, laziness and safety in education. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10, 311 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01787-8

Duggal, N. (2024, October 22). Incredible Advantages of AI: Notable 23 Benefits of AI. simpilearn. https://www.simplilearn.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-artificial-intelligence-article#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20provides%20numerous%20benefits,capable%20of%20learning%20and%20thinking.

Fan, L. (2024, February 16). AI reduces critical thinking. the Nexus. https://wvnexus.org/opinions/ai-reduces-critical-thinking/#:~:text=These%20life%20skills%20have%20the,of%20these%20critical%2Dthinking%20abilities.

Klingbeil, A., Grützner, C., Schreck, P. (2024, June 18). Trust and reliance on AI- An experimental study on the extent and costs of overreliance on AI. Computers in Human Behavior, 160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108352

Rubenstein, L. (2024, June 7). AI and Teen Mental Health. DEVON C. RUBENSTEIN FOUNDATION. https://www.dcrfinc.org/post/ai-and-teen-mental-health

Sahota, N. (2024, July 18). How AI Companions Are Redefining Human Relationships In The Digital Age. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilsahota/2024/07/18/how-ai- companions-are-redefining-human-relationships-in-the-digital-age/

Staggers, A. K. (2024, September 22). The Imagination Crisis: Are We Losing Creativity to AI?. Medium. https://aishakstaggers.medium.com/the-imagination-crisis-are-we-losing-creativity-to-ai-6efe10bea7c4

Wells, K. (2023, June 8). Eating disorder helpline takes down chatbot after it gave weight loss advice. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1181131532/eating-disorder-helpline-takes-down-chatbot-after-it-gave-weight-loss-advice

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Thesis

Human dependence on artificial intelligence can create mental health problems, can cause a loss of judgment, and a loss of skills.

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Human's lose certain skills when AI is overused

Artificial intelligence can be a great tool to make life a little easier, but when it's heavily used, it diminishes the user's critical thinking, and creativity skills. These skills are important, and when humans are over reliant on artificial intelligence, their person's skills can diminish. As Staggers (2024) says, "You might say, "AI can enhance our imagination," but I challenge that notion. AI learns from what we’ve already done, and its “creativity” is based on patterns and formulas, not the wild unpredictability of human thought. It can’t offer us something radically new, something that pushes the boundaries of what we know. It can only show us more of what already exists, rearranged to seem fresh." Artificial intelligence can generate art, essays, or music in a matter of a couple of seconds which replaces the human effort that's put into it. The creativity that an AI can do is limited, and it has no deeper meaning or message behind any of it. Using AI to write essays and to help with brainstorming makes us lose our critical thinking skills. When was the last time you solved a problem without having to google the solution? According to Lan (2024), "The more that students use machines to do the thinking for them, the more dependent on these machines they will become, disturbing key cognitive processes. Using AI to take the shortcut to an answer instead of figuring it out on your own lowers your cognitive reserve, or connections between healthy brain cells. The cognitive reserve hypothesis reflects how agile your brain is in solving problems and coping with challenges." Turning off your brain to let an AI do all the thinking is a recipe for disaster that would only harm you in the long run. We, humans, need challenges that will stimulate our brains so that our challenge-solving skills and critical thinking skills improve. Using these skills can help us when AI cannot be used, and also keep our brains active.

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Human's dependency on AI can cause a loss of judgment

Digital naiveté is the lack of awareness about hypothetical online dangers and the tendency to believe information on the internet without checking if it's true or if it has a source. This can also be the same as how humans interact with artificial intelligence. More and more people are letting AI take over their decision-making skills just because a bot told them something different. As Klingbeil et al (2023) notes, "Building upon research on algorithm appreciation and trust in AI, the current study investigates whether users who receive AI advice in an uncertain situation overrely on this advice — to their own detriment and that of other parties. In a domain-independent, incentivized, and interactive behavioral experiment, we find that the mere knowledge of advice being generated by an AI causes people to over rely on it, that is, to follow AI advice even when it contradicts available contextual information as well as their own assessment." This study goes into how people over-rely on artificial intelligence for financially risky decisions in an interactive behavioral experiment. Humans rely on artificial intelligence that is biased, limited to what it's programmed to do, and inaccurate is not the route someone would want to take when making an important decision. But it's not just human decision-making that's being affected, but human beings more lazy, and the security and privacy risks. In another study, Ahmad et al (2023) said, "The data analysis findings show that AI significantly impacts the loss of human decision-making and makes humans lazy. It also impacts security and privacy. The findings show that 68.9% of laziness in humans, 68.6% in personal privacy and security issues, and 27.7% in the loss of decision-making are due to the impact of artificial intelligence in Pakistani and Chinese society. From this, it was observed that human laziness is the most affected area due to AI." This shows that the problem of human dependency on artificial intelligence isn't just local to the United States of America but to different countries over the globe. It's also a small portion of statistics since it only covers two countries and not all of the countries that are in the world, so we can imagine what the rest of the countries's data would look like. No one should use any kind of AI to make any kind of decision since it's not a trusted source. Relying on artificial intelligence to make important decisions can make the person second guess themselves when the AI tells them something different.

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Artifical intelliegence causes mental health problems

Recently, artificial intelligence has been used as a replacement for human mental health workers like therapists, psychologists, and even in helplines. These bots are not professionals who can actually diagnose anything or prescribe medications. The only advice that it can give is what its programming says, and half the time the information or advice it gives is either inaccurate or harmful to the user. As Wells (2023) notes, "The recommendations that Tessa gave me was that I could lose one to two pounds per week, that I should eat no more than 2,000 calories in a day, that I should have a calorie deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories per day, all of which might sound benign to the general listener. However, to an individual with an eating disorder, the focus of weight loss really fuels the eating disorder." The AI named Tessa gave out terrible "advice" that could cause a person recovering from an eating disorder to go back into those toxic and harmful ways of thinking. These bad habits from eating disorders like counting calories, replacing meals with glasses of water, and even throwing up food after eating it are more harmful than most people realize. People who have an eating disorder also have some type of body dysphoria that feeds into those thoughts that their body doesn't look right or the way they want it to. So when artificial intelligence is put in charge of such a sensitive topic to those in recovery, it's an obvious disaster waiting to happen. In a 2024 article, Rubenstein discusses how artificial intelligence is being used in unhealthy ways that could affect teenagers. She writes that teenage boys are creating deepfake nudes of teenage girls, and are spreading these deepfakes all over the internet, and in other social environments. She also says that AI could lead to more dependence on screens especially for those who are already stuck to their device, and this could lead to an addiction. I think we can all conclude why this is dangerous to young girl's mental health. The ridicule that would come from their peer, and others in their communities when it is being spread everywhere. The people being shown the deepfake nudes may not even that it is a fake, and may believe that it is real, damaging those young girl's reputations in an irreplaceable way. This is very alarming news, and when AI's become more and more advanced what else could it do to cause harm to people's mental health?

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Introduction

In 2023, over 250 million people used some form of artificial intelligence. This technology has completely rethought how the world integrates information, analyzes data, and communicates. While this technology might change the world, the dependence that humans have on artificial intelligence is very harmful. Humans being dependent on artificial intelligence causes an increase in mental health problems, relying on AI until it makes us bad with judgment, and losing important skills since AI can do it for them. If we're not careful using artificial intelligence, it can end up doing more harm than good.

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Being dependent on AI is harmful

Thesis

Introduction

Artificial intelligence causes mental health problems

Human's dependency on AI can cause a loss of judgment

Human's lose certain skills when AI is overused

On the other hand

And why should I care?

In conclusion

Works cited

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Hope and Redemption

There are many small acts of hope and redemptions in this movie, it doesn't need to be a large one to bring about change. Like WALL-E caring for the plant or holding EVE's hand. At the end of the movie, that is the human's chance to redeem what their ancestors have done. They now have the chance to rebuild, regrow, and protect their planet in a way that their ancestors couldn't. The humans in the movie now have a chance to forget their passive comfort that was spent for centuries in the Axoim and to take action to live a better life.

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No Real Antagonist

This may sound crazy, but in WALL-E there is no "real" antagonist. The film does have a couple of antagonists, but I will argue that it's none of the character's fault in the movie. Our main villain, AUTO, is the typical bad AI that has the "red-eye" and a monotone voice. He tries to stop EVE, WALL-E, and Captain McCrea from returning to Earth and tries to stop the plant from being discovered. But this kind of behavior is 100% not his fault. It's the humans who existed during the time of humans fleeing Earth to go into space. They programmed him not to go back to Earth, and he simply listened to those directions. All he was doing was following his programming. Was it old and outdated? Probably, but the humans in the past never thought that they would be able to return to Earth, let alone find a living plant. AUTO is quite literally auto-mode, and it is not his fault that all he's doing is obeying his programming. He only listens to Captain McCrea when he says that its a direct order.

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Humans' Over-Reliance on AI/Technology

When we first see the humans on the spaceship, they are nothing like the commercials advertising the ship look like. They spend all of their time stuck in a floating chair that transports them to different locations. They rely on technology to bring them drinks or food, or to do anything. They don't have to physically interact with anything. They have lost the ability to walk or stand, and when the ship is being turned onto the side, they are absolutely helpless. They have to rely on WALL-EYE and EVE to save them since they cannot save themselves. All of them are surrounded by technology which leads them to be isolated even when there are so many people nearby. Even the babies on board the ship are being taught and influenced by technology and AI, and they even float in chairs too. Captain McCrea relies on the autopilot or AUTO to make sure the ship is running. WALL-E is the one who is "awakening" all of these humans to be self-aware. When he bumps into them, they gain their common sense back.

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AI as a Savior of Humanity

The robots in the film replace the typical "human" saviors. They take on the role that the humans normally would be having. It's up to them to save all of humanity and lead the ship back to Earth to rebuild society. WALL-E and EVE experience values like empathy, responsibility, and love. When WALL-E comes into contact with other humans, he wakes them up and makes them self-aware of what's going on. The other robots that he comes into contact with also seem like they are becoming more aware of their surroundings and themselves. The humans in this movie cannot save themselves like they physically can't. There's a scene where a man falls off his chair, and cannot get up by himself. He needs the help of the other robots and WALL-E to help himself back into the chair.

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Humans and Robots Switching Roles

The robots in WALL-E fall into the leaders and caretakers, and they maintain society. Humans are typically supposed to take the lead, make decisions, and be agents of process, but that's not how they're portrayed in the movie. On the spaceship, AUTO and the other service robots maintain that the ship is functioning correctly. They manage food delivery, security, entertainment, and hygiene. The humans on the Axiom behave like machines, they all follow the same scheme without questioning anything. They sit in the floating chairs and get nothing achievement-worthy done. They're all stuck in this repetitive loop, that only breaks when the robots wake them up. The roles reverse and even the robots become the humans. WALL-E shows a lot of human-like traits and displays a wide range of emotions, and bravery.

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WALL-E as a Reflection of Human Traits

Throughout the movie, we see WALL-E mimicking human behavior to try to become more "human-like." He collects trinkets that he finds interesting, and he sleeps in the metal container with his cockroach companion, even when he doesn't need to sleep, and he wants to find a Hollywood movie type of love. These little trinkets are meaningless to the audience, but to him they mean everything. It gives him some semblance of meaning. WALL-E essentially lives the typical human's 9-5. He wakes up, packs his lunch pal, does his work, goes home, and watches television before going to bed. We can also see just how lonely he really is. He's the only one left of his kind on Earth, and he yearns for a romantic connection like the one on the VHS tape. We often see him holding his hand which indicates that he wants to be able to do that with somebody else. When he meets EVE, he instantly wants to have that connection with her. You could even call him desperate for that type of connection, and he even follows her into space just to be near her.

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Behavioral Psychology

WALL-E's actions are not driven by his programming or even external rewards, it's intrinsic motivation, he has this internal desire for a connection and a huge curiosity about the world. He has learned to express human emotions by watching human films and the objects that he finds. His longing for companionship is an example of his behavior being motivated by internal fulfillment. Through this exposure to human objects and films, he begins to associate hand-holding with love. He even shows separation anxiety when he's not close to EVE when she shuts down.

Behavioral psychology doesn't only apply to WALL-E but to EVE and Captain McCrea. Eve's main directive is to search the Earth for any sign of life, while her original behavior is goal-driven and narrow. Her interactions with WALL-E change her behavior and bring in positive reinforcement. His care for her and kindness trigger an emotional response for EVE, and this shifts her behavior throughout the film. At the end of the movie, she reciprocates WALL-E's affection, which is complete 180 to the stiff, cold, task-oriented robot she once was.

Captain McCrea shows a lot of learned helplessness, which means a person no longer believes they have control over their situation. He and the rest of the humans on board have an extreme dependence on machines and technology. Once he finds out what the plant is, he experiences a motivational shift from extrinsic to intrinsic. He wants to take action to return to Earth and reclaim his authority over the ship.

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