I see more and more ads for artificial intelligence. This evening on the subway one ad promoted how AI could turn the workplace task of creating a slide deck from two weeks of many sub-tasks like compiling data and designing slides into one prompt followed by a complete slide deck. The task would take minutes now.

I’ve heard a lot of uses for artificial intelligence. I haven’t heard of one that improves people’s lives. I’m sure they exist, but I haven’t seen them. Most are like the one above. It’s tempting to point out that it saves time and likely improves the quality of output, that it enables the person to focus on what they want to, not low-level mundane work like making sure the text aligns etc.

But people don’t make presentations because they like making presentations. They do them because their jobs require them. Things people like are spending time with family and friends, hobbies, expressing themselves through art, music, and performance, spending time in nature, cooking, eating, helping those less fortunate, and all sorts of things that don’t require technology. Beyond not needing technology, technology can get in the way.

This first type of AI use seems to accelerate market growth. If you equate GDP growth with improved quality of life, that acceleration implies accelerating quality of life, but I don’t see that correlation.

The result of this first type of AI use seems to create an arms race between people to deliver more goods and services, but I don’t see them improving health, safety, or security. I see people increasingly worried about actual arms races, including using AI as a weapon, fears of society collapsing or being taken over, etc.

Another big use of AI is to make things people like easier, like relationships. Instead of figuring out how to speak to people who might disagree with you, you can connect with AI instead of the other person or for ideas for how to speak to them.

The result of this second type of AI use is like when you put on a cast for broken bone that makes it so you can’t use some muscles and they atrophy but what atrophies from AI are mental, psychological, and emotional skills and strength. I don’t see it improving relationships. I see it making people dependent and fragile, especially kids. I’m sure I’m missing uses.

AI in this looks like a robotic exoskeleton that enables you to do more than you could otherwise, but atrophies your social and emotional skills. It makes you socially and emotionally obese (which podcast guest Laura Coe wrote about), like doof, despite enabling you to do more than you could have otherwise.

I think people confuse the outcome with the journey. If the journey is to a destination that doesn’t improve your life or culture, what do you gain in reaching it faster? If the journey itself is the value, what do you gain in shortening it? It seems that the more people use AI, the more accomplished they feel. the more dependent they become and the more society becomes dependent too.

Meanwhile, it increases rates of pollution and depletion, which violate our Constitutional protection of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. We saw what happened to this nation when it didn’t enforce that role for slaves. I suggest we don’t need to learn it twice.

• ← More Americans died in the Civil War than all other wars combined
• May Day / No Kings Garbage. →