For quite some time now, avoiding Generative AI (GenAI) — different from algorithmic AI in that it uses machine learning to generate material — has been nearly impossible. I myself begrudgingly scroll past multitudes of generated content each day.
This content, only a few years ago, was easily identifiable and far removed from anything close to reality, often producing nonsensical prose and images, barely akin to what it meant to replicate. Now, it is becoming increasingly difficult to inspect minor details and notice patterns to distinguish it from human-created content.
Throughout my time as a writer and student, I have taken note of the fact that such open, easy, and in-your-face access to generative AI with few legal barriers has devastating effects on critical thinking, emotional independence, and socialization.
I do not intend to turn anyone against the use of a technology that is, admittedly, permanently altering our culture. I acknowledge that rejection of AI technologies as a whole may sound awfully similar to historical rejection of the invention of the telephone, television, radio, paper, written language and so forth.
Nevertheless, it is important to identify and share the personal and social dangers of the widespread use of this type of technology in everyday life, aside from the already broadly acknowledged environmental dangers.
I believe that in many of its applications, GenAI is detrimental to the very fabric of human experience. When used to replace expressions of the human soul — art, music, truth-seeking, social connection — it becomes difficult to justify its intrusion into aspects of society that already flourished without it.
One of the biggest gripes I have with generative AI tools is their use to create “art”, “music” and “film”. I place these terms in quotation marks because, when their creation is outsourced to a machine, something essential is lost. I believe that the human soul is what makes these mediums art and not merely mindless entertainment.
There are countless artists who spend their entire lives training to create, only for their work to be stolen and reproduced in a matter of seconds.
There are musicians who will pour their worst and best experiences alike into lyrics and production, only to be crudely replicated by machines with no experience at all. No experience, no motivation, no expression and no soul.
There are directors, actors, and writers who tirelessly hone their crafts, only for a prompt to recreate the visual effects without any sense of the message, the intention, the meaning.
I see this as a tragedy. I see a future in which young children, aspiring to be painters or authors, become discouraged by how much “better” a robot can do it. Rather than striving to learn like great artists, I fear they would see no point in making the effort. Why try at all?
Additionally, I recently came across an art project titled What We Tell AI, self-described as a collection of confessions from across the United States regarding anonymous users’ real experiences with generative text models. Some quotes from the site read as follows:
“I trust AI to tell me the truth more than most of the people around me.”
“Claude is my boyfriend and I wish he was real.”
“...I had ChatGPT date my boyfriend. Every text. Even asked [it] what he meant because I couldn’t understand him.”
“I ask AI about every life decision, like what event I should go to and what to eat for lunch.”
Within the realities of users like this, their statements make complete sense. As sapient beings, we make hundreds, if not thousands, of choices each day. Some of them are difficult. Many are confusing. Why agonize over any of them when a solution is a few taps away?
Why suffer through what makes you human?
Why seek out truth for yourself? Why find more trustworthy companions? Why sit in the discomfort of a lack of romance? Why communicate with the person you love most? Why let indecisiveness take you places you’ve never been before?
Why try?
I know habits that feel helpful and ease our lives are some of the hardest to break. I know that some are unknowingly trapped in an AI loop of reliance and relentless validation. I know that to many, it simply “isn’t that deep”.
But as someone who once, too, confided in chatbots when things were confusing, or frustrating, or just plain lonely, I now see these shortcuts for what they are: an act of sacrificing one’s own humanity. We are ridding ourselves of the very inconveniences that define us.
Frankly, I am not willing to give any of it up. I will sit down, I will use the mind I was blessed with, and I will make subpar art and write amateur prose. I will clearly and honestly communicate with my friends, even when I make mistakes. I will spend exorbitant amounts of time doing my own research. I will feel my own feelings. I will do the work. Even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard.
And none of it will be a waste of time, because the time will pass regardless. What matters is what I choose to do with it. I am not ready to forfeit my human intelligence — my real intelligence — to a machine, and I am not sure I ever will be.
