“I don’t use AI” is the new “I don’t fly anymore” or “I don’t eat meat anymore“
In my generation, we used to fly several times a year (for vacations), or even several times a month (for work). When Greta Thunberg reached popularity, some people severely limited, or even stopped, flying. Countries like Sweden even practice flygskam, the shame of flying.
The reasons for this choice are:
- first and foremost, the climate impact of air travel
- but also, the questioning of a world based on advertising: go there, you will be happier than here.
- or even based on appearances: go there, you can show it off and talk about it.
After mass tourism, we now have mass artificial intelligence (I mean generative AI) operating on the same principles: at the expense of a dramatic environmental cost, Gen AI self-promotes its model of approximate information, low effort, and poor quality, all in a frantic race forward (more processors, more energy consumed, more water captured).
For example, AI-generated images are starting to create irritation: it’s like the “business” photos on hastily developed websites, featuring dynamic young executives in suits and white shirts/blouses.
Out of ten websites, the same improbable photos appear. It’s so cheesy that it undermines the message about the professionalism or competence of the company.
It’s the same for posters and images created by AI, with their dominant yellow tint and graphically identical characters (always the same face styles, like in a bad Anime). If the person used AI to generate an image without realizing that the result looks “amateur” or even “plastic,” it sends a very bad signal about the core message.
Can we dream of a world where people who use Gen AI become the uncool ones?
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