I am a big believer in the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” motto and unfortunately, the technological world is not. Notably, it feels like AI has been forced down our throats, appearing in all my apps and search engines in a way that I find repulsive, pointless, and inescapable. I switched to Ecosia as my search engine but even Ecosia started offering AI responses (though at least in comparison to Google it has an off button). Not only do I find the constant presence of AI annoying, but I find it harmful, and I find that it makes me feel complicit in the harm.
Data centers are cropping up everywhere now in order to handle the sheer volume of AI requests, and they are damaging to the communities they are built in. The water quality tanks, the noise increases exponentially, energy prices skyrocket, trees are chopped down by the acre– it is disastrous. According to the World Resources Institute, in the US alone, 2025 saw more than $60 billion of increased electricity rates. The same article quotes an estimate that by 2028, data centers built to support AI might use 32 billion gallons of water each year– in other words, the same as a third of a million US households. With noise levels between 85 and 100 decibels, air full of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, and the takeover of potentially fruitful farmland, people’s lives are being disrupted and even ruined by these centers.
As folks struggle to pay for their livelihoods or to move away from the no-longer-affordable communities they live in, the rich get richer. According to Forbes, in 2025 alone, 50 more people reached billionaire status because of AI. Studies show that, at the same time, AI widens wealth disparity gaps in a mutually reinforcing cycle: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
And it's not just the environment and economy that suffers: it's the users. An MIT study compared people writing an essay with only their brain to those writing with AI (there was also a group in the middle who had access to a non-AI search engine). The results showed decreased brain activity in participants using AI, and their remarkable inability to recall what they had just written. Other studies show that an over-reliance on AI results in worse recall abilities and a lack of critical thinking.
And yet here we are being forced to, even at a small scale, use and support AI as an industry. Not only has it emerged as an option, but it’s becoming centered as the option. A default.
I think of technology as a means to an end: a means of getting information, sorting information, storing information. These ends are never worth some of the side effects attached to using AI when regular searches work just fine. I will always prefer to supplement AI’s search capabilities with a little more critical thinking, or a few more tab clicks, and if AI really becomes necessary, I will always advocate for AI that is mindful of its impact, such as ecogpt (if you haven’t heard about it, look into it!) over the soulless tech conglomerates like OpenAI and Anthropic.
References:
Abrams, Z. (2026, July 1). How AI is reshaping human skills and thinking. Monitor on Psychology, 57(5).https://www.apa.org/monitor/2026/07-08/ai-job-skills-thinking
Jose, B., Cherian, J., Verghis, A. M., Varghise, S. M., Muthuramalingam, S., & Joseph, S. (2025). The cognitive paradox of AI in education: Between enhancement and erosion. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, Article 1550621. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1550621
MIT Media Lab. (n.d.). Your brain on ChatGPT. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/your-brain-on-chatgpt/overview/
Park, A. (2025, December 25). AI minted more than 50 new billionaires in 2025. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciapark/2025/12/25/ai-minted-more-than-50-new-billionaires-in-2025/
Skare, M., Gavurova, B., & Blažević Burić, S. (2024). Artificial intelligence and wealth inequality: A comprehensive empirical exploration of socioeconomic implications. Technology in Society, 79, Article 102651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102651
World Resources Institute. (2026). From energy use to air quality, the many ways data centers affect US communities. https://www.wri.org/insights/us-data-center-growth-impacts
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