Date Published: 02/03/2025
Topics: Thoughts & Opinions
A small introspective piece on how my opinions and views of AI have changed and grown since the first release of ChatGPT in November 2022, to the present day where it has become a part of everyone's life to some extent.
When ChatGPT was publicly released for the first time in November 2022, I was still in sixth form, working toward my GCSEs. I can only describe my initial reaction as a mix of skepticism and curiosity. The skepticism, which I’ll get into more later, came naturally, but I was also intrigued. Now that we had something like this, I started wondering: how is this actually going to impact us?
A lot of my doubts and hesitations toward AI came from my love of sci-fi. That might sound a bit odd, but it’s relevant. Like many people, most of my early exposure to artificial intelligence came from TV and film—things like the machines in The Matrix, the droids in Star Wars, or HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
If you look at those examples, apart from maybe Star Wars, AI is often shown as something to fear, something that turns on us. And honestly, I think those portrayals influenced my early views. But I’ve always believed in looking for the good in things, rather than jumping straight to fear or negativity. You can’t just write something off without learning more about it. So that’s exactly what I set out to do.
Furthermore, I started to research about the applications with this technology because of all the news stories on the internet involving it. To my surprise, I found out that it wasn’t this one thing but a whole field of study, and this field was fueling advancements like machine learning. Because of this, I learned about how it’s being used in our day-to-day lives with digital assistants, robots, fraud prevention and more. All of this paved the way for my opinions on the field to start changing; it was safe to say that my opinions on the subject started changing to become more open.
I then started looking into what ChatGPT could do, and I could see myself using it. However, something then happened which shifted my opinion of it back towards disdain. This was because when I was at sixth-form the head teacher that was there tended to overuse it for everything. I was always aware there would be a chance of people overusing it; however, this was the first and only time I saw it being used like that. This caused the shift from believing this technology was one of the best things to happen in modern day tech, to thinking it was bad. My opinion shifted back to this was because it was being used to make decisions for me; for example, when I got a new timetable it was very visibly made using AI.
Through my research, I learned that AI is already a part of our daily lives. Whether it’s digital assistants like Siri and Alexa, robots in manufacturing, or fraud prevention systems in banking. All of this opened my eyes to how useful and widespread the technology actually is. Slowly but surely, my perspective began to shift. I became more open-minded and started to see AI as something that could be really valuable.
I even began to look more closely at what ChatGPT could actually do, and I could honestly see myself using it for things like idea generation or help with coding. But then, something happened that pulled me back toward skepticism.
Back when I was in sixth form, our headteacher had a tendency to overuse ChatGPT for pretty much everything. I always knew there was a risk of people becoming too reliant on AI, but this was the first time I actually saw it happen. It wasn’t just used for support; it was making decisions for people, including me. One set of experiences for example, I would receive new timetables that were clearly generated by AI, and they felt impersonal and thrown together. That was one experience that made my opinion swing back to frustration and distrust, although there are more, but who wants to hear about that.
However, once I left sixth form and started college, my views began to shift again, only this time in a more balanced way. I saw that the technology itself isn’t the problem. It’s how people choose to use it that really matters.
When I first started at Bournemouth and Poole College, it became clear within a couple of days that I’d need to start learning how to use AI tools like ChatGPT as part of my course. It wasn’t long before I got hands-on experience with it, and pretty quickly, I saw just how useful it could be. I’ll be honest. I was impressed.
With that being said, I’ve always been cautious about overusing it. I never want to rely on it so much that I stop thinking for myself. I’ve got this habit where I like to try and solve problems on my own first before reaching out for help. It doesn’t matter whether that’s from a person or a tool. That mindset has stuck with me and really shaped how I interact with AI. I’d say it’s helped me form a healthy relationship with it.
My rule with this technology is: try to figure it out myself first. If I hit a wall and still can’t solve the problem, then I’ll turn to AI for guidance. Thinking honestly, having that approach has made using it feel a lot more rewarding.
On the other hand, there’s no denying it’s a fantastic general-purpose tool. It’s boosted my productivity and helped me learn and understand things I would’ve otherwise struggled with or not learnt about at all. At this point, it’s become something I use regularly and something I would struggle to go without.
Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little introspective look into my experience with AI. In the future, I’m hoping to create something fun that shows off what I’ve learned—maybe a cool AI project to add to my portfolio. When that’s built, I’ll make sure to link it below.