The AI industry is ever-growing, and it’s starting to get scary.
We all know what AI is and we’ve been aware of its potential for decades, but only recently have we publicly seen it grow at such exponential rates.
Every time I open my social media apps, I’m worried that I’ll be fooled by some hyper-realistic AI-generated video. Most of the time I’m able to weed out the fake from the authentic, but it’s not always easy and sometimes I’m still duped.
Not only is AI becoming scarily accurate, but it is also being used for a plethora of unethical reasons. Homework assignments, jobs and even adult videography.
While AI can be used for good, its cons seem to be outweighing the pros. Because AI has grown so quickly, regulations and guidelines haven’t been able to catch up.
Personally, I refuse to use AI if possible.
Notice I said, “if possible.” AI is implemented in nearly everything we use, from the new AI Apple Intelligence to Google Gemini. I can’t even do a simple Google search without being forced to use AI, and I’m sick of it!
I’m strongly anti-AI as a college student, and you should be too.
Using AI for schoolwork
As a sophomore in college, I’m seeing a large increase in the use of AI for school work, and it is frustrating to say the least. I’m giving my all to complete my assignments and tests because I’m paying thousands of dollars to get an education that will contribute to my future profession, but my peers are using AI to do the same thing.
I’m not so upset that they are doing their work with less effort; I’m more upset that they are wasting their potential to learn and contribute to society on a bigger level.
When we complete assignments or read our class materials, we are learning and improving our ability to comprehend the material. If we are using AI, we aren’t actually working our brains since we aren’t trying to understand.
While some things can be harder to comprehend than others, that doesn’t make them bad. It’s important to challenge ourselves.
AI can be used as a learning tool, but we’ve been able to do school work for years without it, and there are non-AI resources that help us to do the same thing. The need for reading comprehension tools has always been there, but now with AI generators like ChatGPT being constantly promoted and extremely accessible, it’s as if it’s essential for our learning.
The rise of digital media use is already an issue for our attention spans, and AI seems like another excuse for us to be attached to our phones and technology in general.
I already have a hard time not looking at my phone when trying to get work done, and if I have AI at my fingertips to help me with said work, it makes it that much easier to switch to another app for a few minutes.
While this may be a bit harsh, I feel like AI is making us stupid and lazy; if we can’t put in the time and work while trying to get our post-secondary education, what makes us think we will be able to do it in the real world? How will we be able to depend on ourselves?
AI has growing environmental impacts
Practically everything we do online has negative environmental impacts, even everyday social media use, and especially doomscrolling.
Like everything else we do online, AI sites need data centers to operate. Computers run prompts and use water to keep those computers from overheating. Many of the things we do online and in our daily lives, like showering, laundry and using the restroom, actually use more water in comparison to a single AI prompt.
But it’s not so much that generative AI prompting takes up a ton of water, but more so, the AI industry is growing rapidly in comparison to the other things we typically do online.
It’s already known that AI uses a lot of water in those data centers, but the number of data centers being built specifically dedicated to AI is growing. The more we use it, the higher the demand and the more data centers are needed to sustain the growth of AI.
An AI prompt is estimated to use five times the amount of electricity compared to a simple web search. Moreover, it’s estimated that the training process of AI uses enough electricity to power 120 average households for an entire year.
As we continue to develop AI, more and more training will be needed. This electricity use means increased carbon dioxide release, which we already know is contributing to global warming.
These data centers also need a place to operate. Wherever they operate, they are using electricity and millions of gallons of water. This water has to come from somewhere, and unfortunately, once used by data centers, it can’t be recycled due to the chemicals used to treat it.
In 2024, Google had plans to build a data center in Arizona, a state that’s notoriously known to be dry and drought-susceptible. Like all data centers, it would be using water in an area where water is exceptionally valuable to farmers as well as the average resident. On top of that, Google would be paying a lower rate for its water usage than the community living there.
Not only is AI expansion increasing the environmental impacts that already exist, but it’s doing it while the general population pays the price. These companies make billions of dollars. Why should they get special treatment?
AI is deceiving the public
At first, when my mom would send me a video of a porcupine riding a dolphin through the Amazon river, or something along those lines, I would laugh because they were so obviously AI-generated.
Now, my mom will send me a video of an elderly woman getting pulled over for going 112 mph, and I have to zoom in to analyze each pixel for any unusual distortion. Or I’m checking the number of fingers on the lady’s hands to make sure there isn’t an extra.
That change between distinguishable and straight-up deceiving happened fast. Too fast. Like in a “2-year span,” too fast. If AI became (somewhat) believable in just a couple of years, what will it look like 5 years from now? 10 years?
AI is only continuing to grow faster, and with it growing so fast, laws and regulations can’t keep up.
Some state and local laws have been made to ensure that people aren’t advantaged to job opportunities or to protect high security information; however, very few federal laws have been made specifically regarding AI and what people can and can’t do with it.
If tight restrictions aren’t made promptly, I could see things ending poorly in so many ways.
Imagine an AI-generated video was somehow broadcast of the U.S. president, Donald Trump, saying that we are going to war with China; immediately, chaos would erupt. What if a parent was sent an AI video of their kid being held hostage and was demanded to pay a certain amount of money to get their child back?
Even if the video doesn’t look completely real, the parent may not even consider the possibility of it being fake because all they can think about is the safety of their child.
These scenarios involve extreme fear-mongering, and fear fosters control.
Could AI be used to create false evidence in court? Could it be used as defamation to ruin someone’s career? Where does it end and how are restrictions going to be put in place to prevent these possibilities?
AI is being used to make nonconsensual sexual content
In my opinion, this is one of the scariest, most horrific outcomes of AI that I’ve seen.
Women, and, more unfortunately, children’s faces are being used to make adult content. Essentially, someone can use pictures of a random, non-consenting individual to create deepfake pornography.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act is a bill that was signed to prohibit the publication of such media, and while this sounds like a great step towards protecting these individuals, it only criminalizes the publication, not the actual creation.
This means that these videos can still be made and possibly even distributed privately.
Additionally, this law was passed in April 2025, but a year-long grace period was given to online platforms to enact this guideline. So, as I write this, the distribution of this content is probably still happening, and nothing can be done. A year is a long time during which a lot of things can happen. Women and children are still being violated, and most may not even be aware.
More so, AI cannot generate a completely made-up face. It uses already existing images of people to create faces because it is simply a construction of human intelligence. It cannot come up with its own thoughts. So, even if someone generates sexual AI content without using someone’s face, that content, in some aspect, still contains existing people’s faces.
This can be used as “revenge pornography,” where someone distributes pornography without an individual’s consent for malevolent reasons, and hurts people’s reputations. Even if not used for that reason, it’s disgusting, dangerous and a breach of people’s privacy. In short, no one is safe.
AI is taking away jobs
This is one of the most widely known downsides of well-developed AI.
Personally, I’ve already seen cases of this happening in my everyday life. One time, I was at a local restaurant where they had lots of art and decorations on the walls. I loved the atmosphere. That was until I looked a little closer at the “paintings” on the walls.
They were all AI-generated photos.
How could I tell? The lucky cat’s paw had different amounts of toes, the lineart just didn’t quite match up, all of the abstract pieces looked artificially curated.
Instead of using real artists’ art and paying them for the work they put in, the restaurant took the easy route. This example is pretty small scale, but even multi-billion-dollar companies have used AI art for advertising.
Although some companies have the money to pay real artists who have creativity and hard-earned skills, they would rather save a buck to use soulless AI-generated media.
AI is continuing to develop and gain the ability to do way more complex things like coding, data entry and software development. If–and when–AI development becomes so advanced that it can replace human work without conflict, companies can stop hiring or even fire employees to have AI do the work instead.
These companies can get work done without actually paying individuals.
How I see it, AI is going to be used as another way for the rich to get richer. They are getting the help they need with almost no cost. They are getting paid without having to spend as much on the company itself.
Who does that hurt? The working class. Who does it help? Owners, CEOs, higher ups and the rich.
AI should have never been this accessible
AI has the potential to better the world in a multitude of ways.
It’s being used to develop treatments for rare (and well-known) diseases. It’s also being used to work towards a future of clean energy in place of our current nonrenewable resources.
These are both amazing things to work toward, but why does that mean we should have so much access?
AI has been talked about for years to be something that would revolutionize science and lead to a brighter, healthier and safer future; however, by giving the general population free access to it, those positive outcomes become drowned out by the negative ones.
I can admit that AI seemed very fun at first. I loved to see what I would look like in my favorite video game or cartoon, but it’s gone too far. The more we use it for unnecessary and downright lazy reasons, the more we normalize it. The more we normalize, the more we dismiss its original purpose.
AI isn’t going away
AI is permanently a part of our futures.
Because of this, if you are going to use it, you should know how to use it properly and reduce energy consumption while doing so.
Make sure when prompting AI, you aren’t asking it one question at a time. Curate your prompt with precision that encompasses all you are hoping to learn from its response. Your prompt should be brief so that you aren’t giving it more information to have to process.
If you are having a hard time with reading comprehension, consider other sources before you go straight to ChatGPT. Let AI be your last resort; if nothing else is helping, then go to AI.
Final notes
While no amount of not using AI is going to make it go away, we should strive to reduce our use as much as possible.
Make the conscious decision to challenge yourself when others aren’t. Not only will you be learning more and utilizing your brain, but it will feel good to say you can do it on your own. Just because other people are doing it, that doesn’t mean you have to.
Personally, I am never going to willingly use AI, even for silly things. I believe that further encourages the idea that AI is okay to use unnecessarily. We as humans have so much potential to grow intellectually, emotionally and creatively and I don’t see how AI could do it any better.
Remember, AI simulates human intelligence; it has the ability to make mistakes just like we do, and we should be wary of becoming too dependent on it.