For simplification, the AI referred to in this article is generative AI.
Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.
Frank Herbert, Dune
My grandfather turned 80 last month, and for some strange reason, he has TikTok downloaded on his phone. It’s a bit absurd, but not too worrying. Last month, he saw an AI-generated video on the app showing that it’s snowing in Kedah, a northwestern state in my home country. Malaysia is situated close to the equator, where we’ve never experienced snowfall and never will. My grandfather is in shock and fascination as he tells my mum that it’s snowing there, and she explains that the video isn’t real, it’s “just AI”.Â
I strongly rebuke the rapid development of AI for several reasons, but that event unearthed another: I don’t want AI to distort reality for my aging loved ones. For the younger generations, we can immediately sense when a video doesn’t reflect reality (even then, it’s getting more difficult, case in point: the recent Jake Paul video). But our elders don’t possess that sharpness exclusive to digital natives. If a Malaysian grandfather just like mine saw that video, but didn’t have someone to tell him the truth, it could reshape what he’s known his entire life. He knows for a fact that we only ever experience tropical weather, but the video looks too real to him. The line between reality and fantasy no longer exists.
There are too many negative effects of generative AI that completely overshadow any “good” it could bring. My biggest passions are music and film, so I detest ChatGPT and its equivalents, because I have no interest in engaging with art that is made by a robot. Humanity is an inherent characteristic of art, so when you have art that is devoid of it, I think it’s meaningless. I don’t care that a robot can generate an image of my favourite movie character in any art style I desire – it’s plagiarism. It’s only able to do so because it practices mimicking pieces by real artists, who dedicate their time and energy to creating. I hate seeing people post AI images on Twitter and claim to be “artists”. You’re not an artist, you’re a thief who spent two minutes typing a prompt into a chatbot. How can we possibly derive value from “art” like this?
It incenses me to see videos like “What would this movie look like if it were directed by [insert name]?”. A robot can copy a director’s style as much as it wants, but it could never replicate it to the same standard as the real thing. Behind every shot in a movie is a piece of the director’s soul, and they pour all their love and passion into it. Human emotion is what makes art special, as well as the artist’s ability to connect with people through shared experiences – regardless of religion, gender, or ethnic background. We all possess the same feelings, and that ties us together, which is what makes art (especially music) so powerful. So, why would I listen to a robot “sing” and lament about a romantic relationship that it’s never experienced? The love it speaks of does not exist and is not real. AI cannot experience heartbreak, feel the longing in the glance of someone you love, or worry when you’re falling too deeply, too quickly. No matter how much it progresses, it cannot feel. So I don’t respect any of the “art” it could possibly generate.Â
One of the ways it’s going to destroy humans, long before there’s a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people.
Justine Bateman, American filmmaker, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/03/creatives-academics-rejecting-ai-at-home-work
Human connection is so important because we need community. However, we may come to a point where we won’t need each other anymore, because we can simply speak to ChatGPT instead. Working through your emotions with your therapist in a way that teaches self-regulation won’t be necessary, because ChatGPT can validate everything you say. You won’t need to think too much about anything, because AI can tell you whatever you want to hear, even if it’s to your own detriment. Sharing our feelings and listening to our loved ones when they seek emotional reprieve is how we build lasting connections. AI eliminates this because you can talk to “it” instead of your living, breathing friend that wants to be there for you.Â
I have a friend that I worry about the effects of AI on, and he said this a few days ago: “What kind of progress are we achieving here, really?”. AI is lauded as this miracle tool, but it seems like the only parties benefiting are the filthy rich and corporations who couldn’t care less about the working class. We’re losing sight of what technology is supposed to do: drive us forward, and assist us without replacing us. Instead, AI is causing us to be more emotionally distant with each other, and fuelling the delusions of the elite whose only goal is to make more money. We’re altering our concept of humanity, and it’s so incredibly bleak to see people say that AI is “the future”.Â
I realise that this article reads as hostile, but it’s only because I really want people to resist AI taking over our lives. I don’t want to live in a world where turning to AI for everyday tasks becomes the norm. I’ve seen people online say that they don’t even write their own emails anymore. You should be capable of writing an email to your coworker; you can’t rely on ChatGPT to do that for you. Even with its defects, AI is already harming us in more ways than we realise. The more we use it, the better it gets at understanding and replacing us. This normalisation is not something out of our control. We have power, and we need to oppose AI as much as we possibly can.
Editor: Erin Mclone