I Hate AI, but I Have to Use it Anyway
On feeling a little less shittastic about it.
I’m going to commit a first-order tech sin. Right now, right here. Are you ready? It’s going to blow your mind.
I hate AI.
I know, your mind is probably safely unblown, but you can be sure that a nonzero number of people reading this article went full-on megazord to rush to the defense of AI. For some people, any criticism of AI, or a suggestion that AI isn’t ushering in a new utopia, is a direct attack on them and their self-worth. Just like it was when they were into blockchain, crypto, nfs, the metaverse, virtual reality, prompt engineering — you get the idea.
I’m not at ‘set fire to data centers’ levels of hate, but I definitely hate it. I hate that it’s ruined so many careers. I hate that it ruins the environment. I hate that it makes everything else more expensive. I hate that people fall in love with it, reinforce delusions, and sink deeper into psychosis. I hate that CEOs are using it to indulge their sociopathic tendencies and gleefully lay off staff. I hate that it represents unbridled greed and unrestrained consumption. I hate that we pretend that it’s all autonomous when it’s trained by workers paid pennies in third-world countries. I hate that it causes brain rot and erodes critical thinking skills. I hate that people are using AI to take the humanity out of being human and calling it progress.
But most of all, I hate that people won’t stop talking about how great AI is. The internet is a never-ending echo chamber of people talking about how AI has made them so much better, how they can do so much more with AI, how they’ve automated their life away to AI! They follow it up with vague doomerism - if you aren’t on board, you are just missing out, you just don’t get it, you are going to be replaced and left behind, the future is SaaS, apps, work, and whatever buzzword du jour is all dead. All of this was written in the unmistakable cadence, flow, and syntax that broadcasts to everyone that the ‘author’ (and I use that term loosely) used AI to write everything.
We come full circle: the AI-written posts espousing this AI-nirvana are a honeypot for AI-written comments, praising the insight, foresight, and brilliance of the ‘authors.’
It’s fucking exhausting.
Meanwhile, I’m over here struggling with two-ish things:
I am obligated to use AI, despite the shitty parts.
AI can, when used intentionally, actually be useful.
A nigh overwhelming urge to smack people who should know better upside the back of the head
(Luckily for that last one, LinkedIn hasn’t even implemented an “eye-roll” reaction yet, let alone a “reach through the screen and knock some sense into you” reaction.)
I am always trying to use software ethically, and in a way that doesn’t make me feel like I’m a terrible person, and AI makes it hard, for all the reasons I mentioned above. It also doesn’t change the fact that I am obligated to use AI.
So I’ve adopted a few ground rules that don’t invalidate the bad parts of AI. But they help me limit the bad for myself. First, I make sure I know what AI does well and what it doesn’t. AI is terrible at accuracy, truthfulness, and reality. If facts are important, AI is not your friend. AI is good at reviewing, helping brainstorm, and providing feedback. These are places where, if AI hallucinates, it doesn’t matter.
Then, I remind myself AI is for chores, not choices. I am ruthless with my definition of chores. Just because I dislike doing something doesn’t make it a chore. To be a “chore,” it has to be low engagement - I wouldn’t have used much brainpower or developed/honed a skill doing the task, and it has to be low-impact. If When it screws up, it needs to not be catastrophic.
I’m intentional. I use AI for a very narrow set of tasks — all based on what it can do well. Being intentional is committing to the idea that if it doesn’t need to be AI, don’t use it. So many apps are shoehorning AI into every nook and cranny for god knows what reasons. I saw an advertisement for an app that would use AI to journal for you. You know that thing that’s supposed to be about centering, slowing down, and reflecting? Do I need a shopping AI bot to tell me what to buy? I sure don’t.
Speaking of shopping, I make purchasing decisions based on how a company uses AI. I’ve cancelled services based on their use and stance on AI. Spotify refuses to solve their AI music problem because they make bank on it - unsubbed. Working with a vendor who uses AI in all of their support - cancelled contract. Pay extra to have AI read my notes for the week and generate a summary? I’ll find a new tool.
When in doubt, pinky out, don’t use AI. If I’m not sure whether I should use AI, I just don’t. AI doesn’t do anything new, so anything it can do, I can do myself in a less harmful way. AI is fundamentally a solution without a problem. So if I’m on the fence, I don’t use it.
Finally, I prioritize my own privacy and data. Does a company play low and loose with my data to train their models on, or to sell to advertisers? Nope. I turned off all the AI training in my Google account, despite losing access to some Gmail functionality. AI not infecting every aspect of my life is more important than autoresponses or autocategorization in Gmail.
None of this makes me hate AI any less. None of it makes AI any less terrible for people. None of it makes this situation any better. What it does is make me feel a little less shittastic. It gives me deliberate control over how I engage with AI, even when its not entirely within my control whether I engage with AI. Hopefully, this can help you out, too.