I walk into a café and see people working on their laptops. Invariably, the ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini windows are open. AI has invaded our world and taken advantage of human laziness. Nothing generative AI does cannot be done by humans; it creates nothing new. It merely takes human input and recycles it at high speed.
Artificial intelligence makes people really daft
Many forms of technology are useful, and improve human health and the condition of our society. But often, some so-called advances just seem to make the hamster wheel spin faster. In fact, a recent study published in the Harvard Business Review on AI “Brain Fry” warns that excessive AI oversight causes acute cognitive fatigue and slows down human decision-making, while separate experts interviewed by the Harvard Gazette note that outsourcing reflection to algorithms actively dulls our critical thinking.
The acceleration of the hamster wheel
I talked to a content producer recently who proudly told me that AI organises his workday so that by 8am it has already accomplished what it used to take him three hours to do. I asked him what he did with the time freed up. The answer? More work. Not walking out in the woods. Not writing poetry. Not having a coffee with a friend. Just producing more content, faster. Not even better content. Just content generation on steroids.
Overproduction of content vs under-capacity of its consumption
But who is consuming this deluge of content? Are our human brains able to evolve as fast as technology and allow us to process this content produced at breakneck speed? If capitalism relies on consumption, but AI automation makes half the world redundant, who is left to fuel this insane carousel? Will billionaires and trillionaires consume enough milk, eggs and bread to keep our world functioning? Will they eat at a different restaurant in every minute, purchase a car a second, have their hair cut at a different salon every few hours? What is the endgame to this technology where the mission seems to be the destruction of humankind while giant data centres destroy soil, contaminate water, and heat up an already hot climate? How is this progress?
A costly technology
A recent study, Actionable AI Insights, found that for every dollar spent on AI procurement, almost 80% is swallowed by hidden costs. Perhaps what needs to be evaluated is the cost of the work being done by humans vs by AI? We might find ourselves surprised by the answer: when looking at a single line-item task, AI may be significantly cheaper – but more often than not, using AI for simple things turns out not to be cost effective, and companies are putting restrictions on its use. In fact, only 14% of chief financial officers found clear returns on AI investment.
But at the macro-level, where billions of AI prompts strain electrical grids, deplete fresh water, and displace unemployed workers into state-funded safety nets, the ‘cheap’ AI task carries a very heavy, heavily subsidised societal invoice.
Deep mistrust of AI
The failure to address the societal fallout, and lack of robust, human-centric regulation, have created deep mistrust of AI technologies in the Western world.
China has a different story
Conversely, China has built broad citizen support for AI, according to a Stimson Center paper. While its autocratic political system undoubtedly smoothed implementation, the strategy was built not on dictatorial imposition, but on a complete integration of AI into production systems in a way that safeguards human activity rather than simply replacing it. The West could learn from this experience, but it would require intelligent regulation – something both the owners of the technology and political decision-makers currently resist.
Capability without control is just exposure waiting to happen
In the words of Salma Saad, the founder of Rule26ai, a company aiming to help small and mid-sized companies navigate a responsible use of AI, “The question was never ‘can we use AI,’ it was ‘can we defend using AI’. Firms that treat governance as infrastructure, not friction, will be the ones that actually get value from these tools. Capability without control is just exposure waiting to happen”, she says.
Youth and citizen initiatives to curb and channel AI development
Citizen initiatives have started to challenge and educate the public. Youthforresponsibleai.com, for example, is a global community of students and young people building real knowledge, real skills, and a real voice in how artificial intelligence develops, and who it serves.
The question of regulation and efficacy
Ideally, elected representatives would protect the public interest. Instead, they appear overly focused on backing the corporate donors pushing this exploitative technology into every possible niche. Ultimately, this comes down to how we define progress. In an exploitative culture, efficiency means maximising profits for a select few. In a healthy society, efficacy is aimed at making life easier and more pleasurable for all living beings.
Re-evaluating priorities?
As we career down this path of exploitative and generative AI, where the only thing that seems to be improving is the market value of tech owners, it seems increasingly clear that priorities for its future development need a complete, real and intelligent re-evaluation.
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