Artificial… humanity?

Evelyn Baraké

Recently, I opened social media to cartoon versions of acquaintances smiling at me through my phone captioned “ask ChatGPT to illustrate you at work.” While they might seem fun and harmless, these AI challenges come at a cost.

I’m using the shorthand “AI” to talk about a specific kind of artificial intelligence, namely large language models and generative AI. These are chatbots you write to in plain language and they respond by generating content, whether that be text, images, video, code, etc. Large language models differ from specialized tools that use machine learning for pattern recognition, like those that detect cancer cells, identify pharmaceutical compounds, or automatically transcribe audio, which have clear, specialized use cases and do not present the same set of risks.

Cost #1 Damage to the environment. Training and using these general-purpose AIs requires enormous amounts of energy. According to estimates from early 2023, an interaction with a large language model uses 10 times as much energy as a standard Google search (de Vries 2023). The data centres that power these AIs need to be kept at a certain temperature to function properly. Many are cooled using significant amounts of municipal water. If requests continue to multiply and AI becomes more integrated into our day-to-day lives, this strain on our resources will only increase.

Cost #2 Your data, of course. All the information you feed it —the pictures of you and your family, information about your job, where you live, your opinions —it will use to feed its model. These models are built on the unauthorized use of intellectual property. They have hoovered up the words of writers, the creative outputs of artists, the analysis of scholars, all of whom never gave Open AI or Anthropic permission to absorb their work, nor to mimic and distort their voices so that a machine can speak to us in a voice that feels familiar and trustworthy.

Cost #3 Fueling the growth of unethical, unaccountable corporate interests. Most of the big chatbot AIs we know and use are run by American companies of questionable ethical standing. Grok, the AI that runs on X (formerly twitter) is the brainchild of infamous Elon Musk, but other CEOs are not much better. Brian Patrick who runs the Instagram account @pano.dime has made it his mission to post “one insane thing an AI executive said everyday of 2026.” Take Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir, who publicly claims to be in favour of public executions and co-founded a company that ICE uses to decide who to target (Day 28). The account does not seem to be running out of content. AI companies are signing contracts with the U.S. Military to deploy autonomous weapons systems. Their tools have already been used to identify targets and carpet bomb Gaza, and now, Tehran.

Cost #4 Community. Let me explain. AI executives want us to think that a future where AI is integrated into every aspect of our lives is inevitable. You have a question? Ask AI! You want to tell a funny joke? AI can help you with your standup comedy set! Writing a sympathy card for a loved one? AI will write a heartfelt message more eloquently than you ever could. It seems innocuous, but each time we ask this mimicking machine to take on a human task, we slowly tear at the threads that bind us to one another.

We’re lucky here in Sandy Hill to live in a great community. Next time you’re tempted by an AI challenge, try this: If you want to turn your cat into a fun cartoon, try your hand at drawing and why not submit it to the Sandy Hill IMAGE. Lacking in artistic skills? Hire a local artist to create a unique piece of art you’ll treasure for the long haul (I can recommend a few). Tempted to ask an AI chatbot to curate the perfect playlist? Invite friends to a shared playlist and ask them to add their current favourite songs. AI chatbots may seem like a fun novelty, a quick and easy way to do something that would normally take longer, but in doing so, they cheapen what makes it satisfying in the first place, the chance to exercise your creativity, connect with others and with what it means to be human.