When the result is outstanding, does it really matter whether AI played a role?

What is surprising is that, after years of AI becoming part of everyday life, many people still seem late in appreciating what it is and what it is not.

If the tool matters more than the outcome, then perhaps we should stop driving cars, abandon aeroplanes, reject calculators and computers, and return to walking while communicating with dawuro and drums.

Every generation has resisted a new technology before eventually embracing it. The printing press did not destroy knowledge. Cameras did not destroy painting. Tractors did not destroy farming. Computers did not destroy accounting. They multiplied human productivity. AI belongs to the same family of tools.

Would you avoid a doctor who uses MRI scans and advanced diagnostic equipment in favour of one who simply presses your body with his hands to guess what is wrong? Would you ignore a mechanic using modern diagnostic software and instead choose one who dismantles your entire engine just to find a single faulty part? Of course not. In every other field, we celebrate tools that make professionals faster, more accurate, and more productive. Why should AI be treated differently?

The real issue is not whether AI was used. The real issue is whether the person using it exercised judgment. AI cannot replace taste, critical thinking, ethics, or responsibility. It can produce nonsense just as easily as brilliance. The value still comes from the human who asks the right questions, verifies the facts, corrects the errors, and decides what is worth publishing.

Nobody asks whether an architect used CAD software instead of a drawing board, or whether a filmmaker edited digitally instead of cutting film by hand. We judge the finished bridge, building, film, or book, not the tools behind them.

If all you want are traditional products, attend exhibitions, visit museums, and ask your parents to show you the handmade works of your grandparents. But stop demanding that everyone else abandon better tools simply because they make you uncomfortable. Nostalgia is not a development strategy.

Judge work by its merit. Is it accurate? Is it useful? Is it ethical? Does it create value? Those are the questions that matter. The tool is merely a means to an end.

Civilisation has never progressed by rejecting better tools. It has progressed by learning to use them wisely.