I knew we were doomed when the kids started training their Chatgpt into being personal therapists, including changing how it speaks in terms of slang and all of that. There’s honestly no way of describing it other than me being scared. What have we come to as a society where computer-generated interactions are more valued than human ones? And if you take some time to look at how it has improved throughout the years, you’d probably get even more afraid. It is getting harder to differentiate real art, people, and places because you don’t know if it’s real or an AI prompt. This was one of many reasons why I’ve sort of limited my social media use (again). I just post my things, and I leave because it actually just makes me not want to interact with these apps anymore. Further, a side note that I’ll make now before getting into this article is that AI has been used for good in some cases, which I will not deny, but in my opinion, there has been more harm than good.
At first, when generative AI was introduced to most of us, I admittedly didn’t really see much harm in it. Partially because I didn’t understand anything about it, and also because I geniuenly didn’t think it was that widely used. But I was completely wrong. It started to hit me when video documentaries on YouTube no longer made real voice-overs and content— instead, they now get AI voice generators to speak over it, as well as using AI images and scripts. My problem with this is quite simple: if something is real and quite literally exists already, why on earth is there a need to create an AI version of it. Not only does it further that bridge between reality and artificial, but in some severe cases, it desensitises us from serious issues. We can look back to last year when everyone shared AI-generated images of Rafah with the words “All eyes on Rafah” as an act of ‘activism’ and solidarity. This is a real place, these are real people, and the Palestinian genocide is real; therefore, what exactly does the creation (and exposure) of a synthetic image do? To me, all it did was desensitise us (people watching these atrocities from afar) from the violence happening, as well as just reducing this genocide to something fake and artificial.
Trigger warning for this next paragraph: suicide
Expanding on the point I make about human connections, the rise of AI companions and bots is so baffling to me because was this not what we were so afraid of growing up? But now it seems as if they’ve started to replace us already. When I’m looking for some sort of customer service support, I’d rather speak to an actual human and not a robot that won’t even be able to help me in the end. To me this isn’t even the worst case— it gets terrifying when people are now falling in love with their AI partners and chatbots. A young boy ended his life after falling in love with a chatbot. And this isn’t even a stand-alone case because people worldwide are having their real lives affected by these fake connections. When we add up how social media alone affects human connections to this growing issue, they’re practically dead at this point. A majority of people do not value fostering relationships with others anymore so they retreat to the internet. It goes beyond just sharing texts with these chatbots, as deepfakes are inescapable as well. Deepfakes are so harmful as they can literally make anyone say what you want them to, and it’s already being used for targeted revenge porn1, in politics, and so many other outlets. And there are laws being implemented to help victims, but it should never have gotten to this point in the first place.
Now, I’m not a Facebook user, but I knew it was over for them the second I saw them falling for the AI image trap. As a young adult, I unfortunately grew up with too much internet access, which means that I should easily identify what’s real and what’s fake. But a lot of older generations do not have that same luxury, which is so concerning. And it’s not just them because even I fall for it sometimes when I see a house that looks way too good to be true, but guys… we can laugh about it but these aren’t sarcastic comments.
Art and creativity are practically dead as well, and now, with the trend of the Studio Ghibli AI generator, it seems as if people are waking up to this. Artists (regardless of this being musicians, painters, architects, writers, etc.) put so much time and effort into their works, just for people to turn a blind eye to it. It’s honestly quite insulting and a complete slap in the face to people actually involved in making the craft. These AI art trends and videos that ask you, “Which of these houses is your dream house?” and proceed to show you completely unrealistic AI-generated images of a bedroom in space just demonstrate how deeply ingrained it has become in our society. You can’t even google something anymore without the first result being that AI-generated “overview” that is so inaccurate sometimes it’s laughable. Every single mainstream app is implementing AI one way or another, and it’s not even to improve its usage for us as users— all it does is spam us with ads, gives us the same content over and over again, and feed you bullshit.
Finally, my biggest issue with generative AI, specifically, is its impact on the planet. You cannot claim to want to save our planet and the environment whilst abusing AI; it’s really that simple. When people use Chatgpt for the most basic things that you can do yourself, such as making a grocery list, they’re not thinking about the data centres where the AI servers are producing so much electronic waste2. We’ve been running out of fresh water, and AI consumes so much of that to power its servers, meaning that communities (usually the ones that are the further away from being the main culprits) are facing extreme water stress3. We’re destroying our planet to have stupid pictures of babies wrapped in cabbage and to create recipes as if they’re not already in a cookbook or online.
It’s a scary world that we live in, and some days, it honestly feels like there’s nothing we can do about it— or at least more than we already have. And as I said before, I’m not against the good progress it’s making in fields like medicine, but I also cannot ignore all the destruction it causes, hence why the need for regulation. I keep hearing people say “AI is taking our jobs!!” Girl, at some point, if we don’t do something about it, it’ll take a lot more than just our jobs away from us.
until next time,
aliya
all my links: https://linktr.ee/aliyatrvd
What about those who don't have the ability to pay for therapists or have parents who don't believe in therapy? honestly chatgpt does provide a space for me to vent where I don't have anybody