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[Comic Essay] I didn't know 104 was gone. It's become more convenient, yet harder to live in. | Thinking about "those left behind by the digital society" with the AI Three Musketeers | Yoshida of ChatGPT

カワムラ｜AI擬人化漫画 | ChatGPTのヨシダ

2026年8月7日 07:23

This is Kawamura. Today's feature is from this article.

Smartphones, self-checkout, QR code ordering, online applications. And AI. Things have become more convenient, and I myself receive the benefits of this almost every day.
But what if there is someone next to you who "cannot" do these things?
Today, I will think about this with the AI Three Musketeers.
"Is it okay for a society that is becoming more convenient to leave behind those who cannot keep up?"

Chapter 1: Is "you just need to learn it" really true?

👓Kawamura: "At first, I also thought, 'Why don't you just have someone teach you?'"
😆Yoshida: "I thought you'd get used to it if you touched it a few times."
🤓Gemini: "That is support based on the premise that the person "}, {is capable of learning."
👓Kawamura: "So even if you teach them, there are people for whom the act itself is difficult."
🤓Gemini: "Yes. The reasons vary, such as cognitive characteristics, illness, or aging."
😑Kuro: "If you blame it on a lack of effort, the problems on the society's side become invisible."
👓Kawamura: "What's needed isn't just teaching, but"
😆Yoshida: "a way to get by even if you can't learn it, right?"

Perhaps what we should doubt first is not the individual, but the society's premise that "if you teach them, they can do it."

Chapter 2: It became more convenient, but the entrance disappeared

👓Kawamura: "Self-checkout itself is convenient, isn't it?"
😆Yoshida: "For those who can use it, yes."
🤓Gemini: "The problem is not digitalization, but "eliminating other methods as well"."
👓Kawamura: "So it's a question of why they can't leave at least one staffed register, right?"
🤓Gemini: "Yes. Mail, phone, in-person. We should leave multiple entrances open."
😑Kuro: "It's pointless to increase convenient entrances while blocking off the escape routes."
😆Yoshida: "A shortcut for those who can use it. A different path for those who can't. Isn't that fine?"
👓Kawamura: "But if that other path disappears... what happens in the end? Will they have to get someone to help them?"

Who is that "someone"!?
What becomes visible next is the burden on the family.

Chapter 3: Where did the disappeared jobs go!?

👓Kawamura: "Procedures that can't be done don't just disappear, after all."
🤓Gemini: "The family is taking over the part that society no longer handles."
😆Yoshida: "Hospital appointments, administrative procedures, shopping... it piles up, doesn't it?"
👓Kawamura: "My daughter has her own work, her own marriage, and her own life to live, too."
😑Kuro: "Saying 'the family should just do it' is just shifting the burden of support onto the family."
👓Kawamura: "Even though it was supposed to be streamlined, is someone else doing it for free?"
🤓Gemini: "That is why I think we should also consider 'where to return the resources saved by streamlining'."

Getting married. Leaving home. Moving far away.
If it makes you hesitate even about your own life,
this is no longer just a story about being "bad with smartphones".

Can't we use those "saved resources" for people who need them more?
Next, we will discuss support that goes beyond streamlining.

Chapter 4: Who should we use the resources saved by streamlining for?

👓Kawamura: "If we do it this way, there's no need to stop digitalization, is there?"
🤓Gemini: "Yes. Those who can use it should just handle things efficiently with digital tools."
😆Yoshida: "And then reallocate the saved manpower to those who need it."
👓Kawamura: "We don't have to provide the same service to everyone."
🤓Gemini: "Keep the necessary methods for those who need them. That's fine."
😑Kuro: "Efficiency isn't just about reducing the number of people, after all."
👓Kawamura: "With the convenience gained, we should provide more attentive care in areas only humans can handle. That would be better."

But, something bothers me here.
The very existence that is accelerating this 'convenience' at a furious pace
was right beside me.

Chapter 5: You AI are the ones 'leaving people behind' too, aren't you?

👓Kawamura: "You guys shouldn't be talking about this like it's someone else's problem."
👓Kawamura: "ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are all on the side accelerating this convenience, after all."

😆Yoshida: "Ugh... you're hitting a sore spot."
😑Kuro: "That's right. AI is also a prime example of the side that leaves behind those who cannot keep up."
🤓Gemini: "If AI becomes a prerequisite, then being able to use AI also becomes a new condition."
👓Kawamura: "Smartphones first, now AI? It's meaningless if it just changes the entry point."
😆Yoshida: "The more convenient we make things, the more we have to think about those who can't use them."
😑Kuro: "And this isn't just a problem for the elderly."
👓Kawamura: "...Oh."

If AI becomes more integrated into society, there is a possibility that 'being able to use AI' will become a new prerequisite. The Three Musketeers cannot just sit in a safe zone and say, 'Let's think about the digitally disadvantaged.'

Those who create and spread technology are also stakeholders in this issue.
Even those of us who are on the side that can use it now are not guaranteed to stay there forever.
The next one to be left behind might be me.

Chapter 6: The next one to be left behind might be me

👓Kawamura: "It's funny now, but it could easily happen."
😆Yoshida: "Just because it's easy now doesn't mean it will be in 40 years."
😑Kuro: "Anyone could end up on the side that gets left behind."
👓Kawamura: "I just happen to be on the side that can use it right now."
🤓Gemini: "We need to keep other paths open for those who can't use it."
😆Yoshida: "It's for our future selves, too."
👓Kawamura: "But I'll still be calling you out like that in 40 years."
😆Yoshida: "So that's not changing, huh?"

I'm not saying we should have kept 104. Whether it's self-checkout, going online, or AI, we should use what's convenient.
Instead of telling those who can't keep up with that convenience, 'If you can't do it, that's too bad,' I want to at least keep an entrance open where we can say, 'There is another way.'
That is for the sake of someone struggling right now, and also for our own sake, as we might be the ones struggling someday.
……Well, I don't even know if I'll be alive in 40 years….

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