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David Buie, #OPEN_TO_WORK

David Buie

College History Professor | Historian of Reconstruction, Memory & American Conflict | Dual Credit & Higher Education Instructor | Writer | Curriculum developer

I am sitting here typing this on my cell phone. Let that sink in for a moment.

For many of my students, typing an essay on a phone is completely normal. For me, someone old enough to remember when we only had to dial four numbers on a rotary phone in rural Arkansas, it is still remarkable.

One of my favorite clichés is, "Technology is great when it works."

As a historian, I often remind my students that every generation believes it is witnessing unprecedented change. Usually, that is not true. But occasionally a technology comes along that fundamentally changes how people live, work, and communicate. The printing press did it. The telegraph did it. The internet certainly did it.

Artificial intelligence may prove to be one of those technologies.

Yet AI is also one of the most misunderstood technologies I have ever seen. When used poorly, it often produces disappointing results. Unfortunately, I see this regularly with students. The irony is that the problem usually is not the technology itself.

Another old cliché explains it perfectly: "Garbage in, garbage out."

AI is not a mind reader. It only knows what you tell it. The quality of the output depends heavily on the quality of the input.

Sometimes AI gets things wrong. Sometimes it creates information that sounds convincing but is completely false. Sometimes it gets things exactly right. In every case, however, it is simply responding to the task it was given.

What concerns me most is that many students are capable of producing far better work than what they get from AI, yet they trust it completely and never verify the results.

I have had students submit AI-generated essays that included historical events that never happened, quotations that were never spoken, and sources that did not exist. The most troubling part was not that the AI made mistakes. The troubling part was that the students never questioned the information because they trusted the machine more than their own judgment.

That is a mistake.

AI should be treated as a tool. Its greatest advantage is that it acts as a force multiplier. It can help students research topics, organize ideas, identify weaknesses in their writing, and serve as another set of eyes during the editing process.

But students still need to think.

In fact, they need to do the one thing AI cannot do: think critically.

AI does not think. It predicts. There is a difference.

For that reason, I do not believe AI will replace people. What worries me more is that critical thinking appears to be a skill in decline. The students who learn to analyze, question, evaluate evidence, and challenge assumptions will always have an advantage over those who simply accept answers without reflection.

History offers a useful parallel.

Many people remember the story of John Henry and the steam hammer as a contest between man and machine. I see it differently. The lesson is not that the machine wins or loses. The lesson is that skill still matters.

The people who learn to use AI effectively will gain tremendous advantages. The people who rely on it without understanding it will not.

Technology has always rewarded those who learn how to use it well. AI will be no different.

The question is: Are we teaching people how to think, or are we simply teaching them how to get answers?

Location: Spring, TX 77373, USA

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