IS PROMPTING THE NEW THINKING?

Outsourcing ideas or erasing originality? Designers are losing their

personal touch, trading craftsmanship for convenience. From dodging assignments to automating texts, students are using AI for the most atrocious tasks, relying on it for everything from brainstorming to movie recommendations.

By Anoushka Gulati

Students struggling through assignments and using one’s brain? That is so old school. Projects are now completed by typing half-baked prompts into a chatbot (no trust issues here unlike their situationships) and blindly trusting the response. Creativity, problem-solving, and originality areslowly being eliminated because a shortcut exists for everything. An algorithm has been built for every possible task, from writing emails to finding good places to eat.

There are free applications for every possible need one can have. These AI apps have free versions and let you enjoy perks if you buy their subscriptions. Graphic designers once sketched out logo ideas for days— now, with a few clicks on Looka, an AI-generated logo is produced. Artists practised their craft for years—today, something “unique” can be generated by an amateur using Deep Dream Generator. Writers once agonised over the perfect line—now, the task is completed by Sudowrite. Even app developers, who once required coding expertise, can now rely on Thunkable to build apps without writing a single line of code. And for those overwhelmed with content creation, captions, blog posts, articles, and ad copies are churned out faster than a blink by Writesonic.

Aadya Oberoi, a 19-year-old fashion communication student from Pearl Academy, acknowledges that artificial minds have made life easier. “Whenever I face diculty while designing something, I put a prompt on ChatGPT, and it sorts my life out in seconds.” No struggle, just pure convenience, at the cost of creativity and problem-solving. However, she adds,“We stop using our brains and depend on it fully which is where we’re going wrong.”

Lavanya Bahuguna, a 20-year-old based in Rudrapur pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration from Graphic Era, has a stronger take. “It’sfrustrating to see AI being relied upon for writing. No matter how much personalisation is attempted, the content ends up becoming a replica of what is being produced by everyone else. It feels as though the soul of writing is being lost, and standing out has become nearly impossible.” The more machines are trained, the less is learned by us.

Convenience is achieved at the cost of creativity, human intellect, and critical thinking. Not only are ideas being outsourced, but the need to think is also being erased. What will happen when an entire generation forgets how to brainstorm, problem-solve, or form original opinions?

---