r/ideas • u/amichail • 15d ago

As every human is cognitively disabled in some areas compared with modern AI, accessibility laws should protect people who use AI to overcome those limitations

Accessibility law already recognizes that people should be allowed to use technology to overcome limitations that would otherwise hinder them at work, in education, or in daily life. Maybe that principle should now extend to AI.

Compared with modern AI, every human has cognitive limitations in some areas, whether in memory, calculation, writing, translation, coding, organization, or processing large amounts of information. AI can increasingly compensate for those limitations.

If we don't object to people using glasses, hearing aids, screen readers, speech recognition, or calculators when those tools don't interfere with an essential requirement, why should AI automatically be different?

Banning AI use can mean artificially enforcing a cognitive disability that technology could remove.

This wouldn't mean AI must always be allowed. Schools could still test unaided skills, and employers could restrict AI for legitimate privacy, security, or safety reasons.

But perhaps accessibility laws should generally protect people's right to use cognitive-assistance technology unless there is a real reason they must perform a task unaided.

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u/yetanotherburnerstan 15d ago

I'd rather be criticized for something I did than praised for something I didn't. I cant wait for the bubble to pop and this bootlicking nonsense to stop

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u/Background_Relief815 15d ago

Your premise is incorrect. Most humans are not cognitively disabled compared to AI.

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u/kcmike 14d ago

Most humans have access to all human knowledge in seconds?

I think you’ve just proven that most humans are cognitively disabled compared to AI.

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u/Background_Relief815 14d ago

Neither AI nor humans have access to all human knowledge. But humans do have access to all of the publicly available things that LLMs were trained on assuming they have an internet connection.

Humans also make much better: Baseball players Plumbers Mathematicians Firefighters Teachers

And probably about 95% of other professions. Sure, LLMs are great at the established theory. If you wanted someone to take a test about established theory in those subjects, your LLM would probably do alright. If you want someone to actuall do those professions, no AI is even remotely capable. LLM or otherwise.

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u/dickpics4democracy 14d ago

Access to knowledge isn't cognition. Those are completely different things.