AI is a destination, not a journey  

Opinion by Paula Kaufman, 

Ever used Amazon? Social media? A direction app? Weather app? Then you’ve used AI (artificial intelligence). 

On the one hand, AI is a boon. There are platforms like ChatGPT that can deliver answers to research topics in seconds. It can write a paper in one click. 

You can ask something as random as “Write a poem about a tin can from the perspective of a tin can made in 1920.” Or, “Rank the 15 best free activities for seniors to do in winter in Huntington, West Virginia.” Bam. Done. But there are drawbacks, too.  

ChatGPT is like dessert. Peanut butter fudge, kettle corn and bowls of ice cream on a conveyor belt into your mouth. Euphoric. But you know what happens if you eat too many sweets? Your teeth fall out. Or, in this context, your brain atrophies. It’s never been easier to be lazy. 

I’m lucky to have grown up in a pre–ChatGPT world. I use reasoning and critical thinking to know when AI misses the mark. But it still beckons. Lures. 

Kids today may never learn to write or research unguided. But here’s the saddest part: kids lose out on the quest—the joy in discovering creative solutions. The alchemy in forging connections from idea to idea. 

AI is a destination without a journey. Blink. You’ve arrived. And the journey is what makes life meaningful. It’s what makes us human. Otherwise, what’s the point? 

The AI revolution means speed. Efficiency. Expediency. The mandate: keep up with AI or be replaced. Quantity over quality. Breath over depth. It encourages us to become generalists, not specialists. And this is not some distant future. It’s now. 

In a culture where profit reigns supreme, people’s jobs are—and will be— casualties to AI. The irony is, of course, that we designed ourselves out of a job. Employment obsolescence. 

ChatGPT is “smart” because it is constructed from human knowledge. AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini “train” or “scrub” — steal—billions of words and pictures from the internet. The writers and artists go uncompensated and uncredited.

The largest AI copyright infringement lawsuit happened in 2025: Bartz et al. v. Anthropic (an AI company.) It awarded 1.5 billion dollars back to writers because AI took the “fair use doctrine” too far. It stole content from over 500,000 books. (If you were wondering, the 25 billion dollar company can afford the payout.) 

So why does it matter if we use ChatGPT as a way to write everything and not selectively? 

Here’s my writer’s perspective: I write first thing in the morning. Lunch. Evenings. It’s mental Olympics. I tumble down research rabbit holes on one side of a hill and find my way out another. I use the delete button so often my fingers consider it a sport. 

Conversely, AI “writes” in seconds. But I wouldn’t derive any satisfaction from that. Now would I? It would save time. Plenty. But what for? I choose to spend time writing. 

You see, working hard at something worth doing can be its own reward. It’s fun growing a muscular imagination. 

At the end of the day, AI doesn’t go on a quest. It just gives answers. 

If we treated life like chatGPT or a similar platform…we’d marry, but never fall in love or problem-solve; have children and never raise them; watch a child graduate high school but not participate in their school life. We’d skip almost everything. 

So use chatGPT  tools with discretion. Sometimes, not all the time. Forge a balance between the old world and new. And teach your children the same. 

Life is about the journey.