When an outraged father flushed his child’s pet baby alligator down a Chicago toilet, he never imagined that 12 years later the creature would have grown into a giant predator, bursting out of street sewers and munching on pedestrians.
Or at least that was the scenario of the 1980 film Alligator. The story may sound far-fetched, but for many Generative AI and especially ChatGPT evokes a similar blend of fascination and anxiety. It has grown into a gigantic tool dominating our everyday lives and the consequences remain largely unknown.
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, even its architects did not predict the seismic impact it would have or that it would reshape the world. Around this time three years ago, what began as “a low-key research preview” has grown into a popular tool used by 800 million people worldwide.
“Some OpenAI employees were nervous that the company was rushing out an unfinished product,” wrote Charlie Warzel in an article titled “The World Still Hasn’t Made Sense of ChatGPT.” “But CEO Sam Altman forged ahead, hoping to beat a competitor to market and to see how everyday people might use the company’s AI. They called it ChatGPT.”
The result went beyond anyone’s expectations: one million people used ChatGPT in the first five days of its launch.
“ChatGPT grew faster than any other consumer app in history,” Warzel went on. It is not just that millions are already using it daily, but there is no doubting that ChatGPT is rewiring our society and more importantly perhaps also our economy.
“Now we are living in a world that ChatGPT helped build,” Warzel concluded.
But the ways in which AI is reshaping our lives have been one of the biggest issues of debate with experts divided on its pros and cons.
“Like any controversial subject, there will always be people who are for it, and those that are against it,” says a study titled “How Artificial Intelligence Will Change the World.” The study, published by Nexford University, an online American University headquartered in Washington DC, concluded that “artificial intelligence is no different.”
This was also the case when computers, mobile phones, the Internet, and social media were first introduced. They evoked similar anxiety and ended up as indispensable. Today, the introduction of AI into our lives is sometimes frowned upon with equal anxiety, scepticism, and mixed optimism.
For the younger generations, it is an exciting tool that makes tasks easier and faster, a companion that helps them brainstorm new ideas, collect data, solve problems and polish their writing, but which also puts their career entry into the job market at stake.
The older generations may watch the growth of GenAI with anxiety, fretting that decades of work and professional experience could become as obsolete as the cassette recorder or the CD-Rom disk being replaced by modern technology.
Many market research analysts celebrate AI for enhancing productivity, improving healthcare, and increasing access to education. Others express anxiety at the idea of having robots stealing their jobs. The jury has not said its final word, but the consensus is that we have to adapt now.
“AI has become a force multiplier for human potential,” notes engineer Omar Elsafty, an IGCSE computer science tutor in Egypt and co-founder of Eshra7ly Online.
For Elsafty, AI is not meant to replace humans. “Rather, it enhances what individuals and teams can accomplish, helping them work faster, scale ideas, and solve problems that once seemed too complex or time-consuming to complete. When combined with human creativity, judgement, and oversight, AI unlocks abilities that were previously impossible.”
Tech optimists like Elsafty does not see the challenge in AI itself.
“The real challenge is how we govern AI and use it responsibly,” he explained, adding that if clear frameworks are designed “AI can drive unprecedented productivity and innovation without diminishing the human role at the heart of progress.”
TRANSFORMING OUR LIVES? Tech specialists aside, for many people AI is no longer a concept for discussion. It has become an everyday reality.
Whenever they are stuck, people often immediately turn to ChatGPT as an instant saviour that is growing unavoidable by the day.
15-year-old Youssef, a third-year prep school student, is a living example of how AI is dominating lives. Whenever he felt stuck with Charles Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities, which he had to study for school exams, the only alternative to navigating the novel was to ask ChatGPT to summarise the plot and answer questions.
Youssef had chosen an interactive friendly voice with a sense of humour that turned the app into an exciting real-life experience. He had always found it challenging to brainstorm ideas for essay writing, but now, thanks to ChatGPT, writing assignments is much easier.
He now brainstorms for ideas, writes his own version, and asks ChatGPT to correct it and tell him his mistakes, turning the app into a private tutor in the pocket. He then turns the app into a private secretary and consultant, asking his “AI friend” advice on any other matter including daily chores and decisions.
“I know it is just a machine, and sometimes I feel it’s even dumb, but still it helps a lot,” Youssef noted timidly. “I can’t imagine life without it. It’s both helpful and entertaining.”
Youssef is not alone, as he is only one of 800 million weekly users probably thinking the same. Away from academic use, ChatGPT has also become a companion that people use to ask for everyday advice, from what to eat, where to find the best products, to even making decisions on medical and religious issues, financial plans, and problem-solving.
For others, it may serve as a coach, listening attentively to sometimes unsaid emotions and giving solace to lonely people.
“Whenever I feel stuck for advice on any matter, I just ask ChatGPT,” admitted Dalia, a 50-something mother of two. She asks for medical advice and religious fatwas (rulings), or she just uses the machine to express her thoughts and feelings.
“I know it is just a machine, but I just don’t have anyone to talk to when I’m stressed or in a bad mood. It’s an outlet for what I can hardly say to other people,” she said.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI that uses a large language model (LLM) to simulate human-like conversations and perform a wide range of tasks. The “GPT” stands for Generative pre-trained transformer.
ChatGPT functions as a versatile AI assistant, capable of handling numerous tasks across personal and professional uses.
It can help generate, edit, and proofread various types of content, from creative stories, poems, and scripts to professional emails and blog posts. It helps with research, provides information on different subjects, and helps with coding and data analysis.
ChatGPT can automate repetitive tasks, speed up content creation, and help with research and drafting. Businesses can integrate it into services for tasks like customer support. It also provides personalised learning experiences, acts as a tutor, and can make information more accessible, including for those with disabilities.
“AI is such a great help, if wisely used,” insists Elsafty. As a tech enthusiast, he says that technology has undoubtedly made life easier, saving time and effort, especially in repetitive tasks that do not really need any human creativity.
“It acts like a secretary helping individuals schedule their daily chores and giving plans for healthy meals and so on,” Elsafty explained. “AI has helped programmers be more productive and save time and effort. It reminds me of how calculators and computers did the same when they were first introduced.”
“It’s an extremely important tool that all professionals should learn to be more productive and creative. It’s important, though, that we learn how to master it and not let it master our lives. After all, it cannot replace human mind, and it would be catastrophic if people use it this way.”
CHATGPT WRITING: In the field of writing, AI Grammarly and ChatGPT help journalists brainstorm ideas, get faster and deeper data than that provided from Google searches, and produce more polished copy.
Newsrooms can now use a much smaller number of staff, thanks to the assistance of AI.
Issues of plagiarism, however, arise while using AI in writing. After all, using it to edit a story can result in total re-writing and paraphrasing, providing a copy that is totally unoriginal and beyond the author’s potential.
Although programmes like Grammarly were initially created to grammar check, being akin to a computer’s spell-check, they have now developed to also include paraphrasing and polishing language in a way that has raised questions about how far it can be allowed to be used among students and writers alike.
ChatGPT generates text using AI-powered language prediction. The consensus among specialists is that using AI-generated content without attribution and presenting it as original work is considered AI plagiarism, especially among school and university academics and journalists.
“While ChatGPT itself does not plagiarise, some may consider using AI-generated content to be plagiarism,” says an article on grammarly.com. “The responsibility lies with the user to use AI-generated text in a way that aligns with the policies and expectations of the publication or educational institution.”
“Relying entirely on ChatGPT without adding personal insights, analysis, or critical thinking results in unoriginal work,” writes grammarly.com. “AI-generated content that doesn’t contain human input and proper attribution is plagiarism. Additionally, AI-generated text may resemble existing sources, which increases the risk of accidental or paraphrasing plagiarism.”
To avoid plagiarism, writers must use AI as a tool, not a replacement for human thought and verify accuracy and originality.
Meanwhile, many tech specialists warn that ChatGPT can also sometimes produce information that sounds correct but isn’t – a phenomenon known as AI hallucination.
“It is important to edit and personalise AI-generated content,” Elsafty noted. “Rather than submitting AI-generated text as is, refine it with personal insights and analysis to enhance originality and authenticity.”
CHATGPT AND MENTAL ABILITY: There is almost a consensus among experts that too much reliance on AI can stifle creativity.
A recent article published in the US Time magazine quoted a study from researchers at MIT’s Media Lab in the US containing alarming findings about how ChatGPT can harm critical thinking abilities by reducing brain engagement.
The MIT study asked subjects aged 18 to 39 to write SAT essays and divided them into three groups one using ChatGPT, the second using Google search, and the third not using anything at all. Meanwhile, researchers used an EEG to record the writers’ brain activity across 32 regions. They found that of the three groups, “ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioural levels.”
The study concluded that over a three-month period, “ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy and paste by the end of the study.”
Psychiatrist Zishan Khan, who treats children and adolescents, told Time magazine that he sees many pupils who rely heavily on AI for their schoolwork.
“From a psychiatric standpoint, I see that overreliance on these LLMs can have unintended psychological and cognitive consequences, especially for young people whose brains are still developing,” he said. “Those neural connections that help you access information, the memory of facts, and the ability to be resilient – all that is going to weaken.”
The study suggests that “using AI for immediate answers can transform individuals from active information seekers into passive consumers.”
The same Media Lab is working on another similar paper testing brain activity in software engineering and programming with or without AI, and they say that so far “the results are even worse.”
Moreover, studies from OpenAI and MIT Media Lab have found that “generally, the more time users spend talking to ChatGPT, the lonelier they feel as they simply become less sociable.”
Other studies, however, have contradicted the MIT Media lab findings, suggesting that ChatGPT could have benefits for students’ critical thinking, learning performance, and confidence in evaluating sources.
These were the findings of a study titled “Leveraging ChatGPT for Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills” published in the Journal of Chemical Education. The study argues that the impact likely depends on how AI is used. The OpenAI Help Centre itself advises users to “critically evaluate AI-generated content and use it responsibly, emphasising the need for verification and critical thinking.”
Other studies have suggested that AI helps people become more productive but less motivated.
“There is no doubt that AI, just as was the case with calculators, computers, and the Internet, has revolutionised our world, increasing efficiency and automating repetitive tasks that do not need creativity,” Elsafty said.
“The huge time and effort that was once spent on coding, for instance, has been reduced to minimal effort, and this will leave more space to human creativity to advance programmes even further and further.”
“When AI handles routine tasks, human professionals can focus on acquiring new skills that require creativity, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking – areas where AI cannot replace humans,” he added.
AI JOB DISPLACEMENT: However, there is no doubt that some jobs disappear with the advance of technology, and the same thing now applies to AI.
Mona (not her real name), a former programmer who moved to Canada with her three children, had no grudges about her son taking up vocational education and becoming a professional plumber in Canada. After all, she said, those “are the best-paying jobs that will not expire with the advent of AI.”
She shrugs at the thought of any embarrassment surrounding such technical jobs as plumbing. “This is the time for vocational jobs,” she said. “They are the only future-proof careers in the era of AI.”
Mona is not alone thinking this way. A story by Reuters titled “Fearing Losses, Some Young Workers in Britain Shift Towards Skilled Trades” quoted a British girl similarly taking up plumbing as a profession that would not expire as AI continues to swallow up white-collar jobs.
“That’s something AI won’t take over,” 18-year-old Ukraine Yaroshenko, who had moved to study in London, told Reuters. “We will definitely work with it [AI], but only a human can make the unique things AI cannot. No AI can do plumbing, no AI can do real engineering, no AI can be an electrician.”
Yaroshenko has a point. A recent survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a professional human resources body, found that “in Britain, one in six employers expect the use of AI tools to allow them to reduce their headcount in the next 12 months.”
Studies show growing anxiety among employees about losing their jobs to AI and that “hands-on jobs are gaining appeal as AI reshapes labour markets.”
White-collar jobs are normally viewed as the most vulnerable to disruption by AI and automation.
A recent joint study from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Poland’s National Research Institute warned that “one in four jobs worldwide is potentially exposed to Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI).”
“Few jobs consist of tasks that are fully automatable with current AI technology,” the authors wrote. “The transformation of jobs is the most likely impact of GenAI.”
The study also finds that in high-income countries, jobs considered at the highest risk of AI-driven task automation account for 9.6 per cent of female employment compared with 2.4 per cent for men. This gender-disparity is largely due to the fact that the majority of women take up clerical and administrative roles, which are among the most exposed to AI displacement.
“You must have been living under a rock if you did not know how artificial intelligence is set to affect jobs in 2026-2030,” says the Nexford University paper.
“Those that are resisting rather than riding the crest of the wave will not be making hay whilst the sun shines when it comes to landing in-demand jobs in the next six years and enjoying job growth,” the paper warned, adding that “AI will be taking some jobs, but it will be creating new ones”
“I always advise my students to keep on learning new skills because those who will be able to use AI to increase their productivity and efficiency will be the ones landing the jobs,” Elsafty concluded.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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