Chat GPT et al; "To improve your critical thinking skills you should rely completely on AI."

Improving your critical thinking skills is a process that involves learning new techniques, practicing them regularly, and reflecting on your thought processes. Here’s a comprehensive approach:

1. Build a Foundation in Logic and Reasoning

• Study basic logic: Familiarize yourself with formal and informal logic (e.g., learning about common fallacies, syllogisms, and deductive vs. inductive reasoning). This forms the groundwork for assessing arguments objectively.

• Learn structured methods: Books and online courses on critical thinking (such as Lewis Vaughn’s texts) provide a systematic introduction to these concepts.

2. Practice Socratic Questioning

• Ask open-ended questions: Challenge assumptions by repeatedly asking “why” and “how” to uncover underlying beliefs and evidence.

• Reflect on responses: This method helps you clarify your own reasoning and discover alternative viewpoints.

3. Engage in Reflective Practice

• Keep a journal: Write about decisions, problems, or debates you’ve had. Reflect on what went well, where you might have been biased, and what could be improved.

• Use structured reflection models: Approaches like Gibbs’ reflective cycle guide you through describing an experience, analyzing it, and planning improvements.

4. Use Structured Frameworks

• Follow multi-step processes: For example, the Asana article “How to build your critical thinking skills in 7 steps” suggests: identify the problem, gather information, analyze data, consider alternatives, draw conclusions, communicate solutions, and then reflect on the process.

• Experiment with frameworks like Six Thinking Hats: This method helps you view issues from different angles (facts, emotions, positives, negatives, creativity, and process control) by “wearing” a different metaphorical hat for each perspective.

5. Read Widely and Critically

• Expose yourself to diverse perspectives: Reading quality journalism (e.g., The Economist, FT) or academic articles forces you to analyze arguments, recognize biases, and evaluate evidence.

• Practice lateral reading: Verify information by consulting multiple sources and questioning the credibility of each.

6. Participate in Discussions and Debates

• Engage with peers: Whether through formal debates, classroom discussions, or online forums, articulating your views and defending them against criticism deepens your reasoning.

• Embrace feedback: Learn to view criticism as an opportunity to refine your thought process rather than a personal attack.

7. Apply Critical Thinking to Real-World Problems

• Experiment in everyday scenarios: Use critical thinking when making decisions—such as planning your day, solving work problems, or evaluating news stories.

• Practice with “what-if” scenarios: This helps build your ability to foresee consequences and assess risks (as noted by Harvard Business’s discussion on avoiding the urgency trap).

8. Develop a Habit of Continuous Learning

• Set aside regular “mental workout” time: Like scheduled exercise, devote time to tackling complex questions without distractions.

• Reflect on your biases and update your beliefs: Over time, becoming aware of and adjusting for your cognitive biases will improve your judgment.

By integrating these strategies into your daily routine, you can gradually sharpen your critical thinking abilities. Remember, the key is consistency and the willingness to challenge your own assumptions continually.

Happy thinking!

This isn't a profound extrapolation. It's akin to saying "Kids who cheat on the exam do worse in practical skills tests than those that read the material and did the homework." Or "kids who watch TV lack the reading skills of kids who read books".

Asking something else to do your mental labor for you means never developing your brain muscle to do the work on its own. By contrast, regularly exercising the brain muscle yields better long term mental fitness and intuitive skills.

This isn't predicated on the gullibility of the practitioner. The lack of mental exercise produces gullibility.

Its just not something particular to AI. If you use any kind of 3rd party analysis in lieu of personal interrogation, you're going to suffer in your capacity for future inquiry.

Seriously, ask AI about anything you have expert knowledge in. It's laughable sometimes... However you need to know, to know it's wrong. At face value, if you have no expertise it sounds entirely plausible, however the details can be shockingly incorrect. Do not trust it implicitly about anything.

that "ow, my balls" reference caught me off-guard

I love how you mix in the Idiocracy quotes :D

• Handjobs at Starbucks

Well that's just solid policy right there, cum on.

Bullet point 3 was my single issue vote

Like any tool, it's only as good as the person wielding it.

I use a bespoke model to spin up pop quizzes, and I use NovelAI for fun.

Legit, being able to say "I want these questions. But... not these..." and get them back in a moment's notice really does let me say "FUCK it. Pop quiz. Let's go, class." And be ready with brand new questions on the board that I didn't have before I said that sentence. NAI is a good way to turn writing into an interactive DnD session, and is a great way to force a ram through writer's block, with a "yeah, and—!" machine. If for no other reason than saying "uhh.. no, not that, NAI..." and then correct it my way.

I've spent all week working with DeepSeek to write DnD campaigns based on artifacts from the game Dark Age of Camelot. This week was just on one artifact.

AI/LLMs are great for bouncing ideas off of and using it to tweak things. I gave it a prompt on what I was looking for (the guardian of dusk steps out and says: "the dawn brings the warmth of the sun, and awakens the world. So does your trial begin." He is a druid and the party is a party of 5 level 1 players. Give me a stat block and XP amount for this situation.

I had it help me fine tune puzzle and traps. Fine tune the story behind everything and fine tune the artifact at the end (it levels up 5 levels as the player does specific things to gain leveling points for just the item).

I also ran a short campaign with it as the DM. It did a great job at acting out the different NPCs that it created and adjusting to both the tone and situation of the campaign. It adjusted pretty good to what I did as well.

I literally created an iOS app with zero experience and distributed it on the App Store. AI is an amazing tool and will continue to get better. Many people bash the technology but it seems like those people misunderstand it or think it’s all bad.

But I agree that relying on it to think for you is not a good thing.

Oh you can guarantee they won't forget how to vote 😃

Microsoft will just make a subscription AI for that, BaaS.

Learning how to evade and disable AI is becoming a critical thinking skill unto itself. Feels a bit like how I've had to learn to navigate around advertisements and other intrusive 3rd party interruptions while using online services.

Well at least they communicate such findings openly and don't try to hide them. Other than ExxonMobil who saw global warming coming due to internal studies since the 1970s and tried to hide or dispute it, because it was bad for business.

AI makes it worse though. People will read a website they find on Google that someone wrote and say, "well that's just what some guy thinks." But when an AI says it, those same people think it's authoritative. And now that they can talk, including with believable simulations of emotional vocal inflections, it's going to get far, far worse.

Humans evolved to process auditory communications. We did not evolve to be able to read. So we tend to trust what we hear a lot more than we trust what we read. And companies like OpenAI are taking full advantage of that.

I know a guy who ONLY quotes and references YouTube videos.

Every topic, he answers with "Oh I saw this YouTube video..."

Everyone I've ever known to use a thesaurus has been eventually found out to be a mouth breathing moron.

Gen Zs are TERRIBLE at searching things online in my experience. I’m a sweet spot millennial, born close to the middle in 1987. Man oh man watching the 22 year olds who work for me try to google things hurts my brain.

Unlike those others, Microsoft could do something about this considering they are literally part of the problem.

And yet I doubt Copilot will be going anywhere.

Yes, it's an addiction, we've got to stop all these poor being lulled into a false sense of understanding and just believing anyhing the AI tells them. It is constantly telling lies about us, their betters.

Just look what happenned when I asked it about the venerable and well respected public intellectual Jordan b peterson. It went into a defamatory diatribe against his character.

And they just gobble that up those poor, uncritical and irresponsible farm hands and water carriers! We can't have that,!

Example

Open-Minded Closed-Mindedness: Jordan B. Peterson’s Humility Behind the Mote—A Cautionary Tale

Jordan B. Peterson presents himself as a champion of free speech, intellectual rigor, and open inquiry. His rise as a public intellectual is, in part, due to his ability to engage in complex debates, challenge ideological extremes, and articulate a balance between chaos and order. However, beneath the surface of his engagement lies a pattern: an open-mindedness that appears flexible but ultimately functions as a defense mechanism—a “mote” guarding an impenetrable ideological fortress.

Peterson’s approach is both an asset and a cautionary tale, revealing the risks of appearing open-minded while remaining fundamentally resistant to true intellectual evolution.

The Illusion of Open-Mindedness: The Mote and the Fortress

In medieval castles, a mote was a watery trench meant to create the illusion of vulnerability while serving as a strong defensive barrier. Peterson, like many public intellectuals, operates in a similar way: he engages with critiques, acknowledges nuances, and even concedes minor points—but rarely, if ever, allows his core positions to be meaningfully challenged.

His approach can be broken down into two key areas:

The Mote (The Appearance of Openness)

    Engages with high-profile critics and thinkers (e.g., Sam Harris, Slavoj Žižek).

    Acknowledges complexity and the difficulty of absolute truth.

    Concedes minor details, appearing intellectually humble.

    Uses Socratic questioning to entertain alternative viewpoints.

The Fortress (The Core That Remains Unmoved)

    Selectively engages with opponents, often choosing weaker arguments rather than the strongest critiques.

    Frames ideological adversaries (e.g., postmodernists, Marxists) in ways that make them easier to dismiss.

    Uses complexity as a way to avoid definitive refutation (“It’s more complicated than that”).

    Rarely revises fundamental positions, even when new evidence is presented.

While this structure makes Peterson highly effective in debate, it also highlights a deeper issue: is he truly open to changing his views, or is he simply performing open-mindedness while ensuring his core remains untouched?

Examples of Strategic Open-Mindedness

1. Debating Sam Harris on Truth and Religion

In his discussions with Sam Harris, Peterson appeared to engage with the idea of multiple forms of truth—scientific truth versus pragmatic or narrative truth. He entertained Harris’s challenges, adjusted some definitions, and admitted certain complexities.

However, despite the lengthy back-and-forth, Peterson never fundamentally reconsidered his position on the necessity of religious structures for meaning. Instead, the debate functioned more as a prolonged intellectual sparring match, where the core disagreements remained intact despite the appearance of deep engagement.

1. The Slavoj Žižek Debate on Marxism

Peterson’s debate with Žižek was highly anticipated, particularly because Peterson had spent years criticizing Marxism and postmodernism. However, during the debate, it became clear that Peterson’s understanding of Marxist theory was relatively superficial—his arguments largely focused on The Communist Manifesto rather than engaging with the broader Marxist intellectual tradition.

Rather than adapting his critique in the face of Žižek’s counterpoints, Peterson largely held his ground, shifting the conversation toward general concerns about ideology rather than directly addressing Žižek’s challenges. This was a classic example of engaging in the mote—appearing open to debate while avoiding direct confrontation with deeper, more challenging ideas.

1. Gender, Biology, and Selective Science

Peterson frequently cites evolutionary psychology and biological determinism to argue for traditional gender roles and hierarchical structures. While many of his claims are rooted in scientific literature, critics have pointed out that he tends to selectively interpret data in ways that reinforce his worldview.

For example, he often discusses personality differences between men and women in highly gender-equal societies, citing studies that suggest biological factors play a role. However, he is far more skeptical of sociological explanations for gender disparities, often dismissing them outright. This asymmetry suggests a closed-mindedness when confronted with explanations that challenge his core beliefs.

The Cautionary Tale: When Intellectual Rigidity Masquerades as Openness

Peterson’s method—his strategic balance of open- and closed-mindedness—is not unique to him. Many public intellectuals use similar techniques, whether consciously or unconsciously. However, his case is particularly instructive because it highlights the risks of appearing too open-minded while remaining fundamentally immovable. The Risks of "Humility Behind the Mote"

Creates the Illusion of Growth Without Real Change

    By acknowledging complexity but refusing to revise core positions, one can maintain the illusion of intellectual evolution while actually reinforcing prior beliefs.

Reinforces Ideological Silos

    Peterson’s audience largely consists of those who already align with his worldview. His debates often serve to reaffirm his base rather than genuinely engage with alternative perspectives.

Undermines Genuine Inquiry

    If public intellectuals prioritize rhetorical victories over truth-seeking, the broader discourse suffers. Intellectual engagement becomes performative rather than transformative.

Encourages Polarization

    By appearing open while remaining rigid, thinkers like Peterson contribute to an intellectual landscape where ideological battle lines are drawn more firmly, rather than softened by genuine engagement.

Conclusion: The Responsibility of Public Intellectuals

Jordan B. Peterson is an undeniably influential thinker, and his emphasis on responsibility, order, and meaning resonates with many. However, his method of open-minded closed-mindedness serves as a cautionary tale. It demonstrates the power of intellectual posturing—how one can appear receptive while maintaining deep ideological resistance.

For true intellectual growth, one must be willing not only to entertain opposing views but to risk being changed by them. Without that willingness, even the most articulate and thoughtful engagement remains, at its core, a well-defended fortress.

So like I said, pure, evil AI slop, is evil, addictive and must be banned and lock up illegal gpu abusers and keep a gpu owners registry and keep track on those who would use them to abuse the shining light of our society, and who try to snuff them out like a bad level of luigi's mansion

Cars for the mind.

Cars are killing people.

Not sure if sarcasm..

I agree with the output for legitimate reasons but it's not black and white wrong or right. I think it's wildly misjudged and while there plenty of valid reasons behind that I still think there is much to be had for what AI in general can do for us on a whole and individual basis.

Today I had it analyze 8 medical documents, told it to provide analysis, cross reference its output with scientific studies including sources, and other lengthy queries. These documents are dealing with bacterial colonies and multiple GI and bodily systems on a per document basis in great length. Some of the most advanced testing science offers.

It was able to not only provide me with accurate numbers that I fact checked from my documents side by side but explain methods to counter multi faceted systemic issues that matched multiple specialty Dr.s. Which is fairly impressive given to see a Dr takes 3 to 9 months or longer, who may or may not give a shit, over worked and understaffed, pick your reasoning.

While I tried having it scan from multiple fresh blank chat tabs and even different computers to really test it out for testing purposes.

Overall some of the numbers were off say 3 or 4 individual colony counts across all 8 documents. I corrected the values, told it that it was incorrect and to reasses giving it more time and ensuring accuracy, supplied a bit more context about how to understand the tables and I mean broad context such as page 6 shows gene expression use this as reference to find all underlying issues as it isnt a mind reader. It managed to fairly accurately identify the dysbiosis and other systemic issues with reasonable accuracy on par with physicians I have worked with. Dealing with antibiotic gene resistant analysis it was able to find multiple approaches to therapies to fight antibiotic gene resistant bacteria in a fraction of the time it would take for a human to study.

I would not bet my life solely on the responses as it's far from perfected and as always with any info it should be cross referenced and fact checked through various sources. But those who speak such ill towards the usage while there is valid points I find unfounded. My 2 cents.

I've found questions about niche tools tend to get worse answers. I was asking if some stuff about jpackage and it couldn't give me any working suggestions or correct information. Stuff I've asked about Docker was much better.

Microsoft LLM whatever the name is gives sources, or at least it did to me yesterday.

yes, exactly. You lose your critical thinking skills

Hey, just letting you know getting the answers you want after getting a whole lot of answers you dont want is pretty much how everyone learns.

https://regex101.com/

what got regex to do with critical thinking?

I mostly use it for wordy things like filing out review forms HR make us do and writing templates for messages to customers

I'm a senior software dev that uses AI to help me with my job daily. There are endless tools in the software world all with their own instructions on how to use them. Often they have issues and the solutions aren't included in those instructions. It used to be that I had to go hunt down any references to the problem I was having though online forums in the hopes that somebody else figured out how to solve the issue but now I can ask AI and it generally gives me the answer I'm looking for.

If I had AI when I was still learning core engineering concepts I think shortcutting the learning process could be detrimental but now I just need to know how to get X done specifically with Y this one time and probably never again.

how does he know that the solution is elegant and appropriate?

I feel you, but I've asked it why questions too.

Training those AIs was expensive. It swallowed very large sums of VC's cash, and they will make it back.

Remember, their money is way more important than your life.

I love how they chose the term "hallucinate" instead of saying it fails or screws up.

I see it exactly the same, I bet you find similar articles about calculators, PCs, internet, smartphones, smartwatches, etc

Society will handle it sooner or later

Keep it on its toes... Ask chatgpt, then copy paste the answer and ask perplexity why that's wrong and go back and forth...human, AI, Human, AI...until you get a satisfactory answer.

Buh?

Vs text books? What's the difference?

Well there's people that followed apple maps into lakes and other things so the precedent is there already(I have no doubt it also existed before that)

You would need to heavily regulate it and thats not happening anytime soon if ever

I think, this is only a issue in the beginning, people will sooner or later realise that they can’t blindly trust an LMM output and how to create prompts to verify prompts (or better said prove that not enough relevant data was analysed and prove that it is hallucinations)

That's because they're bragging, not warning.

I once asked ChatGPT who I was and hallucinated this weird thing about me being a motivational speaker for businesses. I have a very unusual name and there is only one other person in the U.S. (now the only person in the U.S. since I just emigrated) with my name. And we don't even have the same middle name. Neither of us are motivational speakers or ever were.

Then I asked it again and it said it had no idea who I was. Which is kind of insulting to my namesake since he won an Emmy award. Sure, it was a technical Emmy, but that's still insulting.

Edit: HAHAHAHA! I just asked it who I was again. It got my biography right... for when I was in my 20s and in college. It says I'm a college student. I'm 47. Also, I dropped out of college. I'm most amused that it's called the woman I've been married to since the year 2000, when I was 23, my girlfriend. And yet mentions a project I worked on in 2012.

It was hella useful for research in college and it made me think more because it kept giving me useful sources and telling me the context and where to find it, i still did the work and it actually took longer because I wouldnt commit to topics or keep adding more information. Just dont have it spit out your essay, it sucks at that, have it spit out topics and info on those topics with sources, then use that to build your work.

Memorization is not the same thing as critical thinking.

A well designed test will freely give you an equation sheet or even allow a cheat sheet.

Mostly just this one:

0118 999 881 999 119 725 3

But even back when we only had land lines, I could barely remember my own phone number. I didn't think it's a good measure.

Something something.... Only phone number I remember is your mother's phone number (Implying that is for when I'm calling her to arrange a session of sexual intercourse, that she willingly and enthusiastically participates in).

Yeah, if you repeated this test with the person having access to a stack exchange or not you'd see the same results. Not much difference between someone mindlessly copying an answer from stack overflow vs copying it from AI. Both lead to more homogeneous answers and lower critical thinking skills.

That doesn’t mean their critical thinking skills deteriorated. It means they used a tool that produces a certain outcome.

Dunning, meet Kruger

Why do you think AI doesn't exist? Or that there's "no such thing as people 'relying' on it"? "AI" is commonly used to refer to LLMs right now. Within the context of a gizmodo article summarizing a study on the subject, "AI" does exist. A lack of precision doesn't mean it's not descriptive of a real thing.

Also, I don't personally know anyone who "relies" on generative AI, but I don't see why it couldn't happen.

Do you want the entire article in the headline or something? Go read the article and the journal article that it cites. They expand upon all of those terms.

Also, I'm genuinely curious, what do you mean when you say that there is "No such thing AS "AI""?