A few days ago, during my university lecture, the course teacher asked all of us, "Do you think, as students of international relations, you guys could write an article, a professional article about current national or international issues?" It really made me pause and think for a second. Could I? Even if I could, what would I even write about? I am not a professional writer, nor am I very knowledgeable about the world. I am just a mere university student. To be honest, I am not even very politically sound. So what am I? What is my goal or passion?
I have always been passionate about reading and writing. There used to be a time when I could spend hours reading books or writing poems, short stories, etc. Now, I hate to admit it, but whenever I get time, I am mostly on my phone. I see so many things; I learn so many things, but nowadays whenever I read something online, I start questioning if it is AI or not. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), it is getting harder and harder every day to detect AI-generated articles. Yes, I admit those of us who are experienced can tell the difference pretty quickly. But those of us who are not experienced—do they know? Would you be easily able to tell if I wrote this by myself or via a prompt given to ChatGPT or other apps?
The lack of compassion and the increase of ignorance in people are alarming these days. There are hundreds and thousands of people out there writing about serious issues of the world; hundreds of people are reading about them, but how many really care? How many pause to really think about what they just read? How many take the initiative to make a change? I might be living under a rock, but I don't see people around me take steps to make a change. It is just talks and talks, no actions. Even I am guilty of it too. Despite being guilty, I have decided not to let my passion die just because I am too lazy to write or too afraid of judgment that it isn't good enough compared to other professionals out there. Also, the fact that people use AI to write articles, or even books, is disturbing to me. I cannot sit at home and watch people read AI-generated things without feeling devastated. I might not be a good writer, but surely there are people out there who would prefer a human's thoughts rather than AI.
If I write, the worst that can happen is I will be heavily criticised for my poor writing skills and lack of knowledge, so what? We learn every day.
Recently, I have been wondering: why don't we have any "great thinkers" like Machiavelli or Socrates in this era? Why isn't anyone writing revolutionary things? Again comes the thought: Al can do that, so why bother? This utter lack of sincerity and the sheer carelessness in people are going to feel very heavy on us very soon. Already so many people who have been replaced by Al know the burden. Yes, many will argue that there are hundreds of inventions happening every day that might even make the great thinkers of the past stunned. But are those enough to make the world a better place? Even after experiencing this modern age of technology and advanced thinking, how progressive really are we? What great change is there?
Have we been able to solve world hunger? Wars? Pandemics? Corruption? Gender discrimination? Unemployment? Are we living in a better world or just a world bent to make it look like it is better, but in reality it is still the same?
I have so many questions and very few answers. I am writing this article to make myself believe in myself again, to not be included among those who are ignorant or lack motivation, and I will continue to do so until I am convinced that I have made a change. If this article makes even one person pause and think about their passions, especially those who are passionate about writing, and take the initiative to make a change for the better, I will consider this my first victory.
Before submitting this article, I thought about using some kind of app like Grammarly to make it seem flawless and professional, but I decided not to do that. I don't want to seem flawless; I am not Al. I am human; I am capable of making mistakes. The greatest thinkers of the world had had their fair share of mistakes in their lives, and that is what I think made them great. Here's to writing again; here's to great thinking!
The writer is a student of Department of International Relations at Bangladesh University of Professionals. andalibyousha03@gmail.com
