Sweatpant-Jeans & AI Chatbots

In 2009, it was peak cool to wear “jeggings.” If you’re new to this term, these are leggings (think skin-tight cotton pants) that look like jeans (printed with a denim pattern of some sort). It was so convenient — the comfort of the legging with the more put-together look of jeans. I was 8 years old, and my mom will confirm, I lived in my jeggings. By 2011 though, to my despair, jeggings were “out,” and the next fashion trends took over (maxi skirts, peplum tops, and feather hair accessories). I remember struggling to let go of my jeggings. Probably because they were easier to put on and way more comfortable than jeans.

In December of this year, I bought a pair of “sweatpant jeans.” Exactly what they sound like, these are wide legged sweatpants that look like jeans. I was so excited! I could relive my glory (jegging) days and my travel day outfits would be slightly more put together than my go-to athleisure. How convenient! I wore them a lot the first few months after I bought them. But sitting here today in May, I’m being drawn back to my stiff denim jeans in my closet. And I’m wondering why, if the other option is more convenient (and much more comfortable).

Convenience has been on my mind a lot lately as someone plugged into the responsible technology and AI conversations happening across the non-profit, education, and innovation sectors. Convenience is being marketed to society as a great thing! The end goal! Why wouldn’t we want to be more efficient and comfortable? Why wouldn’t we want more options, more AI tools, and to work less hard?

I know myself pretty well, and I am an achiever. I get a rush from checking tasks off a task list, completing a hard project, and acing big tests. But those things feel so good because I can point to all the work I put into those achievements — the hours I wrestled with hard concepts, collaborated with people who thought differently from me, or studied hard for the exam. There’s something so important about the struggle and how it sets you up to be satisfied in the end.

Are we forgetting about, “It’s about the journey, not the destination?”

Products being created for human efficiency and convenience give the illusion that they are helping us achieve more, but they could be taking away the very processes we need to feel satisfied – to experience human emotions of fulfillment, pride, and the balance of struggle and ease.

There’s something so special about the feeling of wearing a stiff pair of denim all day and finally making it home to throw them across the room and put on your sweatpants.

Mainstream AI chatbots are too convenient, especially for youth and adolescents whose brains are still malleable and are developing their cognitive capabilities. If we condition young brains to achieve without effort or struggle, we risk cognitive atrophy (or even worse, a generation completely void of key cognitive functions). This affects both the individual and collective. Individually, if struggle is not part of the journey, we will have weak brains that can’t critically think, and collectively, if we can’t critically think, our shared baseline of knowledge gets diluted by what AI produces for us (or controlled by bad actors because we can’t discern). An example that I liked from Ezra Klein (I’m paraphrasing) was how if AI produces a A- research report and a human hands that in, and then we train AI models on A- research reports, it could produce B+ reports the next time, C+ research reports the next time, and so on.

Of course it’s not comfortable to not be challenged. But comfortable is not better — especially if it’s constant.

That’s not to say we can’t use AI in smart and calculated ways. There are a lot of very smart people making super cool AI tools with the right guidelines set up (like myflourish.ai). But we definitely shouldn’t be outsourcing all our thinking, writing, and producing because it’s more comfortable. My bed is super comfortable, and I definitely want to stay in it, but if I stayed in bed all the time…you get the point.

We need to collectively wake up, get out of bed, and understand what’s at stake. Even without structured support from adults, pockets of youth around the country are mobilizing against unregulated and unguided adoption of generative AI. Let’s join them.

Once we’re out of bed, we can shift the conversation, from placing the onus on individuals to fix behaviors to placing a magnifying glass up to the systems designed to build dependency and co-opt our achievements.

These products are changing our ability to experience the journey and lowering our tolerance for discomfort. This week, put on that stiff pair of denim, struggle through the day, and remind yourself that experiencing both feelings, of discomfort and relief, is what makes us human.