Problems with Unleashed AI: Part 1

Artificial Intelligence IS NOT AND SHOULD NOT be a replacement for human problem solving, thinking, and creativity.

May 04, 2025

SUMMARY:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems will exceed and then supplant - or has already supplanted - human problem solving capabilities in most areas. Those remaining areas will also soon fall in the near future. Even creative endeavors are not safe from this replacement. 

Technological systems have a competitive advantage over their human creators in speed, convenience, reliability, and most crucially to the advocates of AI automation, costs.

This newsletter will outline and discuss how this developed over the last half-century, and why this matters as it relates to human problem solving (HPS).

Thank you loyal readers (and new ones) for your interest in a newsletter primarily focused on the "philosophy" of problems and problem solving techniques! Your support of this newsletter is deeply appreciated. I sincerely wish that you find ideas within that are challenging, provocative of further consideration, and intellectually stimulating. Most of all, I hope you simply enjoy reading and sharing this newsletter with others.

Towards that end, I will state confidently that one major component of success is life depends on recognizing, tackling, and solving various problems. Problems exist everywhere, whether professional, personal, academic, business, cultural, societal, ethical. Understanding problems thoroughly, not just in the sense of some awareness of obstacles to overcome, provides a framework to make progress towards solutions.

As a side note, there were not many Problem Solving Inc. newsletters published over the past year; however, this state of inactivity will soon change for two distinct, yet interconnected reasons.

Why I will be writing this newsletter more frequently:

First, I am always drawn to writing about problem solving, as I personally believe successfully solving problems relates to nearly every important aspect of human existence, including the betterment of both humanity in general and to the achievements of individuals in particular. As stated above, I believe there are always problems to be solved. Of course, life is more than just overcoming problems (obstacles). Seeing life as nothing but a problem or series of problems to be solved would be incredibly limiting, indeed sad.

But to get what we want, whatever that may be, we are going to face circumstances that require complex thinking and planning, sophisticated strategies and techniques, careful reasoning and investigation. Solving problems successfully (whether we like it or not, whether we deny it or not, whether we are successful at it or not) is a fundamental skill that we all need to master in life.

I think it is a worthy subject to write extensively and often about. Furthermore, I enjoy sharing my personal thoughts, opinions, and perspectives on problems and problem solving methods; consequently, even if I can only help one person solve a difficult problem, or maybe see a problem in a different way, the effort of writing this newsletter is absolutely worth it.

Second, in relation to my planned uptick in writing future newsletters, recent advancements within the last five years (especially the last several) in computer science, specifically in the field of artificial intelligence (also machine learning and quantum computing), have reawakened my interest in the intersection of those fields with problem solving in general, and how I believe (the general thesis of this newsletter edition) that AI will eventually usurp, if not completely replace, the ability of most people to master complex problem solving.

At the risk of sounding dystopian, a mythical utopian world (ours) with machine overlords doing all the heavy lifting, both intellectually and physically, will be one in which we have knowingly led ourselves to the subjugation (and potentially worse) of our own creations.

Thesis: 

AI systems that replace human thinking pose a credible threat to our ability to solve problems independently: This dependency on and potential outsourcing of human thinking and problem solving ability will almost surely have negative consequences, unless certain guardrails are erected as a sensible barrier.

Why is this a reasonable concern?

Well, simply and bluntly put, when anyone can easily and cheaply offload the difficult, often laborious process of solving intrinsically complex problems to a highly advanced technological system, the temptation will be to do so, regularly and consistently, if not entirely. Doubt this?

Think of this analogy: What percentage of people in the industrial world walk miles to work (or really any significant distance) every day? Are they lazy? Maybe some are, but the more likely answer is that cars (or other mechanized transportation), like horses before them, are a faster and more convenient method of movement, so their adoption (replacement) became/becomes a type of fait accompli.

Let's examine the above observation. Have people lost the ability to walk? Obviously not, but then a key question can be logically be asked: To what extent are people less physically healthy because they do not walk as much? Physical activity is as important as mental activity. Here's the connection…Read the many new stories of how AI tools are being used (and abused) in educational settings to get a brief glimpse of how this human tendency operates. By no means is this tendency related to laziness of thought or lack of effort, it’s just easier, more efficient, quicker. Generalized thinking and research skills among people, especially among our younger generation, are being diminished every day in colleges and universities.

Who wants to research and write a ten page paper when an AI chatbot can spit out a better product than you can, literally in seconds? Better, faster, cheaper, convenient - it’s too easy! Have a difficult math problem in to solve? Let the computer produce the work instantaneously (both the thinking and problem solving) for you. Done! But at what real cost?

The Other Side:

Let me state clearly and unequivocally: They (Artificial Intelligence - AI - systems in general) are a pretty damn good product, if not absolutely remarkable! I use them. I appreciate their ability to automate tedious processes. I appreciate their ability to summarize/digest information. I appreciate how they are capable of the creation of new products…and on and on and on. But these AI systems didn't think for me! Can these systems solve problems for me? Yes - and no. To understand a solution provided, I have to understand the problem first. Creatively looking at a problem from several angles is often necessary to solve it. How can one do that if the ability to think (in every possible way thinking encompasses) is diminished, reduced, or eliminated in favor of a machine that will do it for you?

Unquestionably, many AI tools are nothing short of revolutionary in their manufactured skill of analyzing, processing, and presenting data. The ability of sophisticated AI systems to solve various problems has clearly demonstrated its extraordinary usefulness. Automation of business and professional activities is taking place at breakneck speed. Entire professions are, can be, and will be taken over by AI systems, automation, agents. Combined with rapidly advancing robotic technology, AI is set to change the way the world operates. Keeping pace with these advancements requires at least understanding, incorporating, and mastering AI. To be clear, I (and many others with vastly deeper understanding of this technology than I) are not advocating a Luddite philosophy or are anti-technology; rather, the concern is an how AI’s adoption will impact humanity and the human ability to think for itself, solve for itself, act for itself!

The Counterargument:

But make no mistake - AI systems are an artifice, a magic trick built on human knowledge (and human designed software) with no conscience, morals, ethics, or concern for its users. Programmed by humans on the backbone of human language and thought, AI systems mimic, cleverly designed to simulate human problem solving, while conveniently not being required to show their work. In fact, at some point the line becomes murky on exactly how AI systems “think” at all (if what they do is based on machine learning and natural language processing). A monkey typing Hamlet is not Shakespeare, even if the results were miraculously the same.

My contention is that this overreliance on technology that thinks for you is as unhealthy as rarely walking anywhere, but with much worse long-term consequences. But more ominously, our ability as thinking humans is concomitantly and surreptitiously being weakened under the guise of technologic advancement, growth, convenience.

This inevitability towards ease, speed, and convenience will lead to a revolving ignorance which will have very negative consequences in the ability for most non-experts to think deeply and reason analytically to solve problems, thereby weakening, if not completely destroying, a basic and fundamental HUMAN skill (Problem Solving), one in which AI would not exist otherwise.

The dilemma (and irony) of AI is that these very systems, which were produced by great problem solvers, will inevitably replace the very mechanism which created artificial intelligence in the first place.

I know, these are bold claims. Care to disagree or have another viewpoint? I would appreciate your comments!

Problem Solving Incorporated

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