Young people manipulated by AI: From an extension arm to a crutch

(Dan Tri) - There are only 2 hours left until the deadline for the last big assignment of his student life, but instead of spending nights studying for the past 2 weeks, Binh chose to "give orders" to ChatGPT at the last minute.

Young people lost in the AI ​​maze

“I realized that I entered the school with my own efforts and intelligence, but graduated with an industrial intelligence machine,” Thanh Binh (22 years old), a senior student at a university in Hanoi, shared.

There were only two hours left until the deadline for his final big assignment of his college life. The assignment that Binh should have started two weeks ago. But instead of spending nights studying, Binh chose to “give orders” to ChatGPT.

The student simply loads the job roster data, states the requirements, and the AI ​​automatically writes the sections with his name on them.

"The results may have slipped through the lecturer's eyes, but the regret and empty feeling of an achievement that didn't really belong to you will last forever," Binh said sadly.

With just one simple command, AI will create a complete “research paper” (Photo: Getty).

According to Mr. Dinh Tran Tuan Linh - an expert on AI technology and marketing communications, young people using AI is no longer rare.

“According to many published surveys as well as what I have witnessed directly at schools and businesses, the rate of using at least one AI software can be up to 80-90%, especially evident in the young group - students - even pupils", said Mr. Linh.

Not only stopping at looking up homework using AI applications, Anh Duong (20 years old) often considers ChatGPT as her "multidisciplinary expert".

“No matter what problem I have in life, I will confide in ChatGPT. I even ask ChatGPT to tell my fortune and horoscope for me,” Duong said.

Young people even tell fortunes using ChatGPT (Photo: Screenshot).

"Initially, AI was a tool for searching for information, researching, writing content or creating images.

But now, young users have started to move to more personal tasks: confiding in AI, asking AI to tell fortunes, give advice and chat, or asking AI to solve their private and work problems: doing homework, writing essays, writing reports, and doing tasks that require thinking and are more closely connected to AI," commented expert Tuan Linh.

The fine line between support and abuse

There is no denying the benefits that AI brings. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or NotebookLM (an AI tool from Google) are capable of summarizing text, drawing mind maps, knowledge systems, and even supporting programming or content creation.

Luong Vinh (21 years old) - a student majoring in Marketing and Public Relations shared that NotebookLM has helped Vinh a lot in organizing his lessons, reading textbooks and making outlines, contributing to maintaining a good GPA at both schools.

“When I have an exam, I often use NotebookLM's text-to-speech feature to listen to the lesson content again, and take advantage of the time I spend cooking and cleaning the house to review my lessons,” Vinh said.

Luong Vinh often uses a combination of AI tools to increase learning efficiency (Photo: PV).

However, the line between using AI as a support tool and abusing AI is extremely fragile. Expert Tuan Linh commented that this may not be exactly “abuse” but a form of “trust and dependence”.

Vu Van Nam and Nguyen Van Anh Khoi (21 years old), students at a prestigious university in Hanoi, have also just experienced a shock called "AI dependence".

Once confident in their ability to master technology, using AI for reference, spell checking or English learning support, both of them did not expect that they would now depend so much on AI.

Van Nam and Anh Khoi "rushed" to use AI to complete group assignments (Photo: PV).

Mr. Khoi confided about his own decline: “I gradually crossed my limits. At first, I just tried it out, but over time, I became dependent on it. Whenever I started doing some homework, whether it was urgent or not, the first thing I did was to look up ChatGPT and Gemini instead of going to academic repositories like ResearchGate and Google Scholar like before.”

The exercises are "cut and pasted" from many different AI tools (Photo: PV).

Expert Tuan Linh believes that young people are using AI to avoid complexity, solving problems on the surface, rather than to dig deeper and create. This is turning AI from an “extension” of human intelligence into a “crutch” for lazy thinking.
“I see generations standing in front of a great tool, but choosing to use it to do trivial things. The potential is limitless, but the way they exploit it, their imagination is extremely limited,” expert Tuan Linh commented on the way many young people are exploiting and using AI.

The convenience of "just ask and you'll get it" has unintentionally stunted the skills of searching, analyzing and synthesizing information - skills that are extremely important in the academic environment and in future work.

Critical thinking is "assimilated"

The misuse of AI not only affects individuals, but also erodes the value of highly interactive learning activities such as teamwork.

Vu Van Nam, as a team leader, felt extremely stressed when he continuously received "similar" products from the members.

“The excessive use of AI in teamwork makes the meaning of teamwork lost and ineffective,” Nam shared.

Many young people abuse AI in teamwork (Photo: PV).

The essence of teamwork is for members to contribute ideas, discuss and complete assignments in the most meticulous way. But when everyone relies on AI, the final product is just a collection of machine-generated ideas, lacking originality, criticism and personal stamp.

“The quality of group assignments has decreased because they are all created by artificial intelligence, there is no critical thinking, and they all have the same structure,” Nam was upset.

Nam also shared that now when responding to comments and opinions from friends and teachers after presentations, Nam's group no longer discusses animatedly. Instead, the group divides their ideas into individual ideas, looks up AI, and reads the answers in front of the class like a machine.

The dependence on AI does not stop at “asking” for help with homework. Many young people are also willing to spend a lot of money on AI tools because of a vague belief that “the Pro version will be smarter than the free version”.

Thu Trang (20 years old) is a typical example. Whenever someone tells her about a “cool” AI tool, Trang does not hesitate to open her wallet, from ChatGPT Plus, Gemini to Grok, all of which this student pays a few hundred thousand VND per month to own.

However, this costly investment did not bring the expected results.

Trang admitted: “Every time I look up something, I search on different AI tools; when the results are not the same, I don't know which tool to trust, and in the end it takes more time to verify than if I searched myself like before.”

ChatGPT and Gemini are two tools Thu Trang pays monthly to use the pro version (Photo: Getty).

Although Trang feels regretful because she should have invested time to learn how to maximize the utility of a tool, instead of chasing quantity. But then, “because of laziness and not knowing which tool is the most accurate”, Trang continues to spend a lot of money and time on her chatbots every month.

Be more proactive with AI

The price is not just money. It is also low grades, missed scholarship opportunities, and most importantly, the erosion of independent thinking, creativity, and feelings of guilt and regret for "borrowed" achievements.

“In essence, it is not necessarily the fault of young people, but a common challenge for the whole society in the AI ​​era,” said expert Tuan Linh. According to him, this dependence is a natural human reaction when faced with a powerful technology that they are not fully equipped with the tools and mindset to master.

Mr. Linh commented that we should not just see AI as a temporary trend, but consider it as the indispensable “breath” of the era we are living in. He emphasized the importance of young people proactively becoming “conductors”, people who lead and control AI effectively.

Use AI properly to make it an effective tool for your goals (Photo: Screenshot).

To do this, expert Tuan Linh encourages learning “Prompt Engineering” – a skill that helps users “command” AI intelligently, so that AI becomes an effective tool to serve their goals: “Imagine AI as a talented assistant to the chief operating officer (COO), and you are the chief executive officer (CEO) – the person with the final decision-making power,” he explained.

However, experts also note that humans should not rely entirely on AI. It is extremely important to always verify, compare and criticize the information provided by AI.

At the same time, young people need to constantly cultivate “special human abilities”, which are critical thinking, creativity and emotional intelligence (EQ) – things that machines can hardly replace.

“ The world of AI is constantly changing. Therefore, constantly updating knowledge and being ready to experiment with new technologies is a key factor to ensure that young people are not left behind,” Mr. Tuan Linh shared.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/cong-nghe/nhung-nguoi-tre-bi-ai-thao-tung-tu-canh-tay-noi-dai-tro-thanh-chiec-nang-20250609203234900.htm