I’ve also thought a lot about the community impacts — as I was discussing this last night I mentioned the dying helpdesk channel to my wife and her response was “that’s a scary canary in the coal mine.” I think she’s right.
I have a flashbulb memory from ~2003 where my friend had been debating something with his older sisters and he just googled it. Their immediate response was: “No, that’s not right! We need to argue this over and over until one of us is finally so fed up that they go to the library to look it up!” The point wasn’t the argument nor the answer — it was the camaraderie and connection and relationship that the conversation itself built.
This is yet another technology in a long line of technologies whose un-considered use leads to us losing points of connection from our communities. From the automobile to the attached garage door with automatic door opener (so we don’t even see our neighbors upon getting home) to the television to social media to google to AI, we need to remember to use these technologies to our benefit such that they can enable points of connection with others instead of removing it.
Just like air travel, I can’t personally change the world overnight. But I can work to continue finding ways to build relationships and points of connections with others where I can. It’s precisely why we don’t want AI text here!