In today’s technological age, the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) is often hailed as a force that will relieve us from tedious tasks and free up time for more valuable endeavors.
From dishwashers to word processors, countless innovations have improved our lives by reducing physical labor, offering more opportunities to learn, create, and build relationships.
However, the question remains: Can AI replace something as fundamental as reading? And should it?
AI and the Promise of Efficiency
As AI becomes more capable, we are increasingly confronted with the idea of automating even the most intellectual and personal activities. Entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” judge, Davie Fogarty, sparked a debate when he claimed that “reading books is now a waste of time.” His reasoning was that AI reasoning models could distill key insights from books and tell us how to implement them, based on everything it knows about us. This presents an interesting paradox: Can we truly outsource reading to machines, and if so, what would we lose in the process?
AI's current capabilities enable it to summarize vast amounts of information in seconds, providing users with key takeaways or actionable advice. Tools like ChatGPT can digest lengthy articles and books, offering summaries and extracting data. But while this may appear as a more efficient method for knowledge acquisition, it raises deeper philosophical questions. Should we replace reading with AI summaries, or does the act of reading itself hold intrinsic value?
The Value of Reading Beyond the Information
Reading isn’t just about collecting information. It’s about engagement, contemplation, and deep reflection. The process of reading a book, especially when done thoughtfully, involves slow work. It requires readers to follow arguments, experience narratives, and wrestle with complex ideas. This process itself is what often brings value—not just the destination of a fact or insight.
By focusing solely on extracting “distilled” insights from a text, we risk reducing reading to mere data processing. The act of reading deeply engages the human mind in ways that AI cannot replicate. AI lacks the emotional, intuitive, and philosophical depth that human readers bring to the text. When we read, we do not just understand the surface-level information; we form connections, reflect on how it relates to our lives, and engage with the material in a way that shapes our thinking.
Can AI Truly Understand the Human Experience?
The belief that reading can be reduced to a quick summary delivered by an AI model stems from a misunderstanding of both the nature of reading and the human experience. In essence, reading is not just about information but about empathy, understanding, and growth. Books such as the Bible are not merely collections of rules or insights, they are complex narratives, historical accounts, and philosophical reflections that engage the reader in a journey of understanding and transformation.
If we reduce the act of reading to mere data extraction, we move away the meaning embedded in the process. This reduces the richness of the experience to something mechanical and impersonal. The spiritual and intellectual nourishment that comes from engaging with a text deeply is lost when AI takes over. In the same way, eating a meal or taking a walk cannot be optimized or replaced by technology, reading, too, holds intrinsic value that cannot be outsourced.
The Danger of Losing Our Humanity
Outsourcing reading to AI may offer short-term convenience, but it also risks eroding something essential to our humanity. The act of reading, particularly with attention and engagement, is deeply tied to what it means to be human. It reflects our need for connection, reflection, and growth. AI may be able to tell us what a book is about, but it cannot replace the act of sitting down with the book, experiencing it, and reflecting on it in a way that is deeply personal.
As we navigate an age of increasing automation, it’s essential to ask ourselves whether the quest for convenience and efficiency is worth sacrificing what makes us human. When we outsource the very process of engaging with ideas and narratives, we risk turning ourselves into passive recipients of data rather than active participants in our own intellectual and emotional development.
The Bottom Line: Human Engagement vs. Machine Efficiency
AI can undoubtedly assist us in reading by summarizing texts or providing key insights. But when it comes to the essence of reading—connecting with the material on a deeper, more human level—machines are limited. Technology can help us save time, but it cannot replace the human experience of engaging with literature and the world of ideas. Reading is not just a task; it is an experience that shapes who we are and how we understand the world.
In the end, while AI may offer convenience and efficiency, it cannot replace the thoughtful, reflective process of reading that is essential to human growth and understanding. Technology should complement our intellectual endeavors, not replace them!
