Will there be any point in learning anything any more?

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Now that AI is becoming such a regular ‘thing’ and not the stuff of science fiction any more, will the next generation be ‘outsourcing’ their brains and not bothering to learn anything any more? Will there be any point in going to school? Who needs to bother writing an essay when ChatGPT can produce one in a couple of minutes? Who needs to learn a language when AI can translate pretty well in seconds? Why learn history when you can just look up any interesting period you hear about? Already many students (secretly) and adults use ChatGPT or equivalent to write their essays or do their translations, and the examination boards use AI to mark exams. If the end result is AI-generated content being assessed by an AI system, what is the point of the humans being involved at all, if they are basically there in name only? As far as work goes, AI could probably take over office work and even a significant part of healthcare, robots work in factories and production systems and even on the land. Perhaps we will return to the ‘old ways’, working in jobs that so far cannot be done by AI or physical robots. Manual jobs like plumbing, hairdressing, small-scale gardening, childcare and suchlike. The vision of the future that was portrayed decades ago, of humans living lives of leisure while robots did all the work, may come to pass but it won’t be a utopia. We know that working, or at least having some purpose in our daily lives, is important for mental health. And if we didn’t work, how would we earn money to live? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.