10 things wrong with AI
What is AI?
AI tools like chatGPT, Claude and Gemini have become all the rage, as have AI image, video and music generators.
These tools are not really the “Artificial Intelligence” you’ve heard about in science fiction.
Boiled down to the simplest explanation, these tools are computer programs that process lots of data from large databases, then spit out a result based on what the user asked for.
So what’s wrong with that?
It uses too much energy
AI tools are very wasteful in how they process data and give you a response. AI chat tools, image generators and video generators are using staggering amounts of electricity.
This is increasing energy bills for normal people and slowing down efforts to fight climate change.
It uses too much water
The servers used to store and process information for AI tools need lots of water to stay cool. This is increasing demand for water in local communities and pushing up water bills.
It’s trained on stolen data
AI tools rely on data that AI companies have collected in large databases, including text, images and videos. The vast majority of this data was stolen without permission from authors, artists and people who run websites.
The data is so obviously stolen that you can even manipulate it by starting a new website and posting some complete nonsense.
Many authors, artists and publishers are currently taking legal action against AI companies to get compensation for their stolen work.
It doesn’t even work properly
AI chatbots and search tools provide wrong answers so often that almost all of them have now introduced a warning telling users to double-check the information it provides. Google were recently held legally responsible for misinformation spread by the AI overviews on their search engine.
Some chatbot responses are even so dangerous that there is an entire wikipedia page dedicated to deaths linked to chatbots.
AI data centres are being built undemocratically
AI data centres use lots of land, energy and water as we’ve already said. They have a huge impact on the local environment and on utility bills. Many of them are being built all around the world without the consent of local communities. Some communities are now fighting back to block them from being built.
It makes its users less intelligent
Early reports suggest that using AI chatbots could be having a negative impact on users’ intelligence. Offloading thinking skills onto AI means you’re exercising your brain less. Students who use AI to do schoolwork may not be learning the subject matter properly at all.
Thousands of jobs are being lost to it
Companies are using AI as an excuse to lay off workers, replacing office workers and creative roles with AI tools. However, as we said earlier AI often doesn’t work very well. This means some companies are having to hire back workers to fix AI’s mistakes.
It’s being used for abuse
AI tools like Grok have been used to create sexually abusive material, including of children. They’re also being increasingly used in scam phone calls, as well as the creation of misinformation and fake news spread widely online.
It lacks humanity
It seems obvious, but AI is replacing many services where you would otherwise talk to a real human. It’s widely recognised that there is a loneliness epidemic across the world, replacing human interaction with chatbots is likely to make that worse.
AI is also being used to guide high-level decisions so that human managers, bosses and politicians can try to avoid blame.
Concentration of wealth and power
The most commonly used AI tools are being made by huge companies with incredible amounts of wealth and power like Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, OpenAI and X (Twitter).
They’re using their power to convince more people to invest in AI and more politicians to make AI-friendly laws.
AI search overviews and image generators are designed to keep people giving money to big tech companies instead of helping independent authors, artists and ordinary workers.
Is it worth it?
Given all of the above, and with more problems emerging all the time, is it worth using AI? So far many companies have implemented AI in their apps and tools in ways that are totally unnecessary. If you’re currently using AI, ask yourself if it’s worth contributing to all of the problems above, or if you & your community could take a stance against AI to make the world a better place.
