Don`t switch off your brain for AI, experts warn

PETALING JAYA: Generative AI ma y be
fast, confident and seemingly intelligent -
but blind trust in its answers can dull your
thinking and spread misinformation,
experts warn.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak lecturer
Chuah Kee Man said tools like ChatGPT
may produce sophisticated responses but
their outputs are not always reliable, nor
are they based on genuine understanding.
"These models don't really 'think' - they
'predict'," said Chuah, who specialises in
educational technology and computational
linguistics.
"They estimate the most likely response
based on training data. That's why you
rarely get the same answer twice," he said
in an interview.
Even with browsing and fact-checking
features, Chuah said AI still retrieves and
summarises content without comprehension.
He said the polished natur e of
AI-generated text can mislead users into
mistaking fluency for factual accuracy.
"In workshops, I often see people assume
something must be true because it sounds
sophisticated.
"But AI can confidently present outdated
or false information. Its speed trains people to verify less and think less critically,"
he said.
Chuah also cautioned against assuming
that using AI equates to understanding
how it works.
"Even experts are still trying to unravel
how large models arrive at certain outputs,
the so-called 'black box' problem."
To use AI wisely, Chuah said users should
view its output as a starting point and not
as a conclusion.
"Stay curious but cautious. Treat AI as a
helpful assistant, not an authority.
"Develop 'prompt literacy' because
learning to phrase prompts well reduces