After having read an Atlantic article published this week, the author was marvelling at how AI’s ability can now collapse “months of work into weeks, or weeks into an afternoon”, I felt somewhat irritated. Is this what society wants or needs?
Making ourselves extinct – faster
Evolving from simple ChatGPT-type regenerative AI tools, we are apparently now rushing headlong into the era of agentic AI – such as Claude Code – which the author breathlessly described as “it can do all sorts of work a human might do on a computer”.
The fact that the “all sorts of work” includes destroying our planet, and the charming side effect of edging humanity more and more towards redundancy – if not extinction – was not mentioned.
The many advantages of technology
The benefits of technology are not new. They range from wheels to cars, fire to stoves, and plague to vaccines. It has enabled us to fly across oceans, Google Meet across continents, and carry entire libraries in our pockets. It has fueled movements like #MeToo, like Black Lives Matter, which would not exist without technology. Also cell phone photos, videos, and digital records have underpinned investigations into abuses linked to the Epstein files.
Better, faster burnouts
AI technology certainly has many benefits, but it will not replace humans however much that thought might make some salivate. It will simply make our lives exponentially more complex. The evangelists praise its brilliance but rarely claim it will make life better in any human sense. It will not allow us to read more poetry, take more walks at the beach, spend more of our afternoons having coffee with our friends.
No, none of those things that make life worth living. Instead, it will compute faster, analyze faster, and – with great efficiency and speed – shepherd us into burnouts.
With its fake customer service agents, robot delivery personnel, and even artificial love interests, it will worsen the already terrible crisis of loneliness and lack of connection that our society is facing.
Money makes the world go AI
The very architects of AI technology – often the same ones warning us about its existential risks – see neither need for regulations nor for curbing its development. It is as if they are helpless to stop their hands from writing the code, puppets in the hands of some unknown master. And perhaps they are. The so-called ‘tech bros’ have rarely demonstrated the willpower to resist the bulimic binge of fundraising for the next shiny obsession. ‘No’ is a word that they do not seem wired to hear.
Their investors enable the spiral. Today, AI-focused investments dominate the tech sector. According to the OECD, in 2025, AI startups captured about 61% of all worldwide global venture capital – pulling in about $258.7bn out of $427.1bn total. It’s hard to resist the siren song of making more money, even for billionaires. Or especially for them?
Enabler and perpetrator
It appears irrelevant that using AI to make life easier for some inflicts often life-threatening consequences on others. Or that it is causing irremediable damage to our planet. Or that, in many cases, AI technology is being used to exacerbate and accelerate the evils of misogyny, racism and poverty.
Just because we can do something, must we?
Technology has always expanded human power. The real question is whether those hoarding this new power possess the wisdom – or even the inclination – to temper it with empathy and responsibility.
So far, the evidence suggests these humane options have not been included in their wiring. Ironically, without possessing the social and emotional intelligence needed to shape technology to create true value for the good of the living planet, the creators of AI seem every bit as artificially intelligent as the tool they’ve created.
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