I am Anti-AI

Not my usual type of post but this is something I have been thinking about recently and want to talk about, especially as a student studying cybersecurity.

I didn’t know how to title this post, or frankly go about writing it. I have so many thoughts about the topic, and my opinion on it has massively changed ever since I first started learning about it but recently I fell into a spiral of really hating it.

I want to share my thoughts, especially as of recently.

Where It Started

No, not AI history, instead my experience with AI; specifically generative AI.

In high school, I knew very little about it and honestly had no interest in learning more about it; it sounded unnecessary at the time especially because I like learning and building things myself.

In college, a handful of my first year classes brought it up but mainly to say “hey, don’t use this”; but as that year and the following two went on though, that changed.

Classes this past month haven’t exactly been pushing for it nor is it being super encouraged by instructors, but they are starting to allow the use of it for assignments. Along with that, there is more and more stuff popping up around campus about it, like workshops teaching people how to use it for example.

Sure, it can be a useful tool but I think how quickly it was developed and how much companies are trying to push it onto consumers unconsensually is frustrating and is creating a dependency for a lot of people.

Back in about mid-September when a researcher had come out saying he couldn’t work at these large AI companies anymore due to what is currently being developed (whether what he said was true or not), is when something finally snapped in me.

I had already been avoiding AI chatbots a lot this past year due to the environmental impact it has on the planet, but this was the point where I wanted to actively make a change beyond that: switching browsers, getting rid of or minimizing social media use, and so much more.

Some of those may sound unrelated but these last few weeks is where I really started to notice just how many companies were adding AI onto their platforms or right into their devices.

Impact

A lot of people like to argue how useful AI can be and I won’t argue against all those ideas, but I think most people are overusing it in areas where it is completely unnecessary, in-turn developing dependencies on it.

I constantly sit around people who will use it for the most mundane, simple tasks instead of taking the time to think for themselves, ask the people around them, researching a little bit, or even just reading whatever they were already looking at.

And before someone argues with me that they are too busy or AI makes it faster, my arguments to that are:

1. The more you do something, the faster you will get at it anyways but the more you use AI the slower you will be in the future without it or in some cases probably just losing the ability to do it at all. Again, growing a dependency.

2. A lot of that falls onto how our current society is basically running on exploiting each other, a whole separate topic but something that people are either ignoring or are completely unaware of.

There are a few massive tech companies in control of basically everything right now and it seems like out of convenience, many people don’t care or have just come to “accept” it as the future.

I like to learn, build, and create things, and I know I’m not alone in that.

However, with the way society currently functions many people feel stuck in jobs or cycles where they don’t get that chance, so they turn to AI to get them through the work they either never enjoyed or no longer enjoy.

It’s a vicious cycle that got pushed onto us by these larger companies who now have come out saying they have the solution (i.e. AI), and I’m over it!

The Change

A lot of these changes were already in the works, I have slowly been moving back towards utilizing old tech I already own and I’ve always been a conscious person when it comes to my environmental impact, but AI made this push even more important.

I will share and go more in-depth about my old tech in another post because I want it to have it’s own moment, but I do still think it’s important to mention.

Old tech gets you away from streaming services, minimize phone usage, gets you back into things you used to enjoy, and most importantly takes you out of the AI ecosystem.

It also teaches you new skills in tech restoration and repairing, and modding if that is a challenge you are willing to take on.

I’ve started switching to alternative apps and services that don’t use AI at all preferably or at least allow me to turn it off easily.

The first big one was switching my search engine. I now use Ecosia, which is run by a non-profit aimed at helping the environment and easily allows for turning off all AI within it.

I’m currently working towards moving away from all Google (Gmail, Drive, etc.) and Microsoft (Word, Outlook, etc.) suite products to stuff like Proton, LibreOffice, and eventually even a Linux OS.

This is a bit longer of a process because I’ve used some of these forever and my laptop runs Windows more easily for school but will be so nice once done.

I’ve begun deleting accounts on platforms I no longer use, especially if they implemented AI.

And lastly as of now, I’ve stopped taking part in any events or activities where AI is used or required for participation. This unfortunately includes clubs and CTFs, which sucks but I just can’t on my conscious use it for any reason.

Conclusion

This may seem like a pointless post to some and as a student this may hurt my future career, but it’s something I stand on. I won’t turn down a job just because some services use AI, however I won’t use AI and I will actively go out of my way to avoid it.

I’m annoyed by people saying “AI is the future, just accept it!” when we as people shouldn’t. I understand tech is constantly changing and AI probably won’t go away, but I refuse to give up something I enjoy just so a robot can do it instead.

I don’t like AI because it has a negative impact on the environment, people’s abilities in reading comprehension, critical thinking, and research, it promotes surveillance, and exploits and steals from people. Sure it may have some benefits, but when weighed against all of that and more, those benefits mean nothing.

I miss when it was a good thing that people did stuff themselves and actually took the time to learn and build. Instead now we are outsourcing ourselves as humans to robots, and my question to that then: what is the point of even existing anymore?