Aaaaand Now… AI: My Biggest Tech Fear
Ooof. AI. This is the big one for me. Out of all the emerging technologies we’ve talked about, AI is the one that makes my stomach flip. I genuinely dislike the rise of AI, how quickly it’s spreading, how deeply it’s embedding itself into everyday life, and how casually we’re letting it replace things that feel fundamentally human.
AI-generated music? Art? Photography? Do we really need that? Human creativity already feels stretched thin in this hyper-digital world, and now we’re handing over even more of it to algorithms. AI can’t (and won’t) replace real art, but it’s definitely trying, and that’s what scares me most. Everywhere I look online it’s Meta updates, virtual realities, “AI tools to make your life easier,” and even wearable tech glasses that can basically read your thoughts. I mean there goes our last sliver of privacy?? It all feels a little too Terminator for my liking. When we start losing the ability to distinguish AI from real life, something inside me feels deeply unsettled. Young people already struggle with impossible beauty standards, and now we have AI-generated influencers made from thousands of “perfect” faces. It’s disturbing. And in schools, students can avoid developing critical thinking, writing skills, or even basic comprehension because they can plug anything into ChatGPT and get an instant answer.
And then there are the issues we’ve talked about endlessly: AI hallucinations, misinformation, bias, the list goes on. I don’t think AI belongs in the classroom at all, but it feels like we can’t escape it.
The only “solution” I can even imagine is designing assignments where students can’t use AI, things that require in-class work, pen to paper, real thinking. But that brings its own challenges. Not every student thrives in a traditional classroom setting (myself included), and some physically need to type. How do we protect learning without excluding the learners who rely on tech? I genuinely don’t have the answer.
And don’t even get me started on the environmental impact. The energy consumption of massive servers, the water used to cool them, during a climate crisis this feels absolutely wild. Like… are we serious?
Another thing that drives me mad: professors using AI to write lectures or lesson plans. Why am I paying tuition for an AI professor? And seeing AI being marketed to elementary students as a “friendly helper”? No thanks. AI is not a friend. AI is not human. Pretending otherwise feels wrong to me. We’re losing critical developmental skills, the satisfaction of working hard toward something, the collaboration that comes from peer editing and problem-solving. It all brings me right back to my first reflection, my longing for simpler, more human times.
Computers might have been the end of the simple era… but AI feels like the end of something much bigger.
I don’t like it, I don’t want it in classrooms, and honestly? It terrifies me.
The end.
Photo by Nima Motaghian Nejad on Unsplash
Photo by Nahrizul Kadri on Unsplash
Photo by Dylan Hunter on Unsplash