In the office there are employees slumped in their chairs, their limbs and brains atrophied, incapable of moving independently or of thinking for themselves about what they are watching on their screens. Outside, there is a giant open-air landfill. Modern society, which has produced these humans both intellectually and physically, has created mountains of waste that the planet can no longer absorb, to the point that it has become unlivable. The same technology that was used to serve people has ended up turning them into puppets who are totally dependent on it. It has also destroyed their natural ecosystem to the point that the Earth has become unlivable and forced humanity to take refuge on a spaceship where they can live an idle but enslaved life without even being aware of it.
Rest assured that this is not real. The story I am about to tell you is inspired by that of Wall-E, an animated film released in 2008, but the script of which should make us think.
The collapse of the Earth in Wall-E is the direct result of unbridled consumerism and blind dependence on technology by a giant business that has taken control of every aspect of society. To satisfy a population ever more greedy for comfort and convenience, it has encouraged over-consumption to the point of exhausting natural resources and turning the planet into a huge landfill. Rather than face the consequences of this economic model, it then sold them a “turnkey” solution: exile in space, on board a ship, where humans could continue their existence in a technological cocoon, waiting for robots to clean the planet for them.
Now is when the story gets interesting.
The promise of a return to Earth was a lie. The scale of the ecological disaster made clean-up impossible, and the management preferred to keep humans in a comfortable ignorance rather than admit the failure of their system. The following generations, deprived of physical and intellectual effort, lost all capacity to act for themselves, becoming totally dependent on their screens and automation.
Of course, we are very far from that. After all, chatGPT will soon be 3 years old, so we have time to see what happens. But are we so sure?
Indeed, a joint study by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University titled “The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers” has tipped me off.
Here is the bare conclusion:
“The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) in knowledge workflows raises questions about its impact on critical thinking skills and practices. We survey 319 knowledge workers to investigate 1) when and how they perceive the enaction of critical thinking when using GenAI, and 2) when and why GenAI affects their effort to do so. Participants shared 936 first-hand examples of using GenAI in work tasks. Quantitatively, when considering both task- and user-specific factors, a user’s task-specific self-confidence and confidence in GenAI are predictive of whether critical thinking is enacted and the effort of doing so in GenAI-assisted tasks. Specifically, higher confidence in GenAI is associated with less critical thinking, while higher self-confidence is associated with more critical thinking. Qualitatively, GenAI shifts the nature of critical thinking toward information verification, response integration, and task stewardship. Our insights reveal new design challenges and opportunities for developing GenAI tools for knowledge work“
Nothing serious at this stage, but there are still some warning signs for the future. And then I suddenly think back to Wall-E. Firstly because of the cognitive dimension of the problem, which is one of my favorite subjects, and then I think back to the environmental dimension of the issue.
I found it amusing to draw a parallel between Wall-E, his dystopian world and what we are experiencing today.
Excessive automation leads to cognitive atrophy
The study shows that the use of generative AI reduces perceived cognitive effort and encourages a form of “delegation” of critical thinking to AI tools. This is reminiscent of the fate of humans in Wall-E, where automation pushed to its peak has led to total dependence on machines, to the point that they no longer think independently.
In the film, humans live on a ship where everything is managed for them. They no longer walk, no longer think actively, and let themselves be carried away by a system that makes all the decisions for them. This phenomenon is in line with the concept of “mechanization of convergence” mentioned in the study, where the use of AI leads to a homogenization of responses and a weakening of individual critical thinking.
Trust in technology makes people irresponsible
The study shows that the more knowledge workers trust AI, the less they exercise critical thinking. In Wall-E, blind faith in technology has led humanity to a state of total passivity, where individuals accept without question what is presented to them on their screens.
In the study, this lack of responsibility means that users no longer question the answers provided by AI, and that, as in the film, humans no longer even concern themselves with their own well-being or their environment with the belief that technology will be the answer to everything and the solution to the problems it poses (To solve anything, click here and [FR] OPINION. “AI and ecological disruption: moving away from the techno-solutionist illusion”).
Critical thinking is a fundamental skill
The study emphasizes that AI changes the way we exercise critical thinking, reducing it to a passive verification of information, rather than an active construction of knowledge. Similarly, in Wall-E, humans have lost certain essential abilities (walking, thinking independently, interacting outside of screens).
This is an alarming analogy: the intensive use of AI can lead to a gradual loss of cognitive and analytical skills through the delegation of everything to technology.
It’s not a foregone conclusion, but we can only count on ourselves.
It’s not all that negative. In Wall-E, humans eventually regain control under the leadership of a handful of them. Awareness begins when humans realize that they no longer control anything and that the technology is designed to prevent any return to earth.
The study also highlights that some knowledge workers still seek to exercise their critical thinking, especially those who have a strong confidence in themselves and in their ability to evaluate the responses of AI.
Technology and the environment: beware of dream merchants
I cannot end this article without mentioning the environmental dimension, which is closely linked to technology in today’s world (Digital technology and environment: intangible uses for a real impact).
I note two main lessons to be learned.
The first relates to the possibility of finding a replacement ecosystem: today billionaires (such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos) are promoting space colonization projects in anticipation of a major ecological crisis on Earth. And they are absolutely right: whatever the cause, the end of the Earth is known to follow the inevitable extinction of the sun.
But in Wall-E this has had a consequence: the film shows a humanity that has completely turned its back on its own ecosystem. Since we have a plan B, why bother with plan A?
I have already mentioned the second one above: the harm of technological solutionism. The Wall-E robots were supposed to clean up the planet, but after centuries, the task is still impossible. The last functional model, the hero of the film, is the only one left to continue his work. This can be seen as an allusion to the illusion of believing that technology can solve all ecological problems without a change in human behavior.
Bottom line
The parallel between Wall-E and the study on generative AI can be read as a warning about the dangers of excessive dependence on technological tools. If we are not careful, we risk becoming passive workers, accepting AI productions without thinking, just as the humans in the film have abandoned all form of control over their own existence.
In the same way, Wall-E is an ecological fable that exaggerates trends already visible today, to better alert us to what could happen if we do not change our relationship with the environment.
Wall-E also told us that technology could be a means of ideological and cultural enslavement (AI Summit: a real success or a smokescreen for Europe?).
The good news is that in the film, humans ended up rebelling against technology and began to rehabilitate the Earth.
But I will not be prevented from asking myself a question. Were humans not happy to wallow in an idle and totally assisted life? Was it this that caused the revolt or the fact of learning that technology was lying to them and keeping them prisoner in the face of a return to Earth that it considered neither possible nor desirable because it did not serve its own interests.
This ultimately raises the question of AGI (artificial general intelligence) and beyond that of a possible artificial consciousness that would allow technology to serve only its own ambitions.
Of course, we are only talking about fiction, but it may be time to think about certain things. What we see today is by no means dramatic, but it may be the beginning of something that could be dramatic.
Image generated by Le Chat, an AI assistant created by Mistral AI.
