Monday Notes: When AI Takes Control, Don’t Blame the “Tech Bros.” Blame Ourselves.

Disclaimer: These thoughts are a combination of recent experiences, observations, and conversations. Please do not take it personally if you see your reflection.

The other day, I was listening to my favorite podcast, Hidden Brain. The episode’s artwork—an elderly Black woman—was obviously AI. Her gray tresses too perfectly wisped in the wind; the creases on her forehead ventured in two different directions. Her breasts, while not perky, were a bit too smooth for a woman her age. And I wondered why the show had chosen this route, instead of employing an artist or a photographer. I can’t say for certain, but the answers are probably in step with what I’ve heard and experienced: (1) AI is easier, (2) AI is cheaper, and (3) AI is quicker.

AI IS EASIER

Everything that society has done in the name of progress has become widely accepted because it is easier. From the cotton gin to the computer, innovation that eases our burdens is an initial win-win that we are quick to adopt. I’ve worked with several millennials over the last year, and each time, there comes a point in the conversation where they say, Ima just ask AI. Efficiency is not bad. We should work smarter, but there is evidence of what happens when we take an “easier” route; we lose something every time. For example, farming technology created a more sedentary society, and sitting for long periods of time (in front of a computer) advanced obesity.

It’s easier to just ask AI, but Royce and Bennett said that over reliance on these tools can potentially decrease critical thinking skills.1 They also cited a popular Microsoft study that explained the disconnect: The more confident a user feels in using AI, the lower their critical thinking skills are; however, the higher a user’s self-confidence is, the higher their critical thinking skills are.2 Put simply, if you think AI knows more than you do, you’re not going to use your noggin. Add the ease of asking AI to summarize information, as opposed to reading and synthesizing a couple of articles yourself, and well, you see where we’re headed, right?

AI IS CHEAPER

A few years ago, I used Lensa to participate in a social media trend: creating AI photos of myself. I wrote here about how I almost cancelled my photoshoot because it made more financial sense to spend $19.99 on an app, instead of $400 for headshots. How could that one decision hurt anyone? Well, had I canceled, the photographer wouldn’t have made money, and as of today, money is how we survive in a capitalist society.

But everyone doesn’t think like that.

Recently, my GenZ daughter worked with an after-school program and a farmer (who is a millennial) to show teenagers how to farm. For weeks, she met with the farmer and the school’s leadership to create on-the-fly plans. I offered my expertise in curriculum and instruction. I mean, I do have a whole-ass doctorate in the field, and I’ve taught for nearly 30 years at the secondary and post-secondary level. I know things. But someone of my caliber is costly.

“I can just use AI,” he told my daughter.

He’s not wrong. Generative AI can create a curriculum. If he used the ChatGPT Pro Plan for a year, that would still be less than paying me. However, it is not advisable at this stage because it will, more than likely, be an incomplete template designed for a stereotyped diverse student, not the ones they interacted with each day. Someone would still have to review the plans, but I suspect they won’t.

Like ease, I wonder what we will lose in order to save a few dollars.

AI IS QUICKER

Is doing something quickly a white supremacist characteristic? That’s what I asked Google Gemini. I already knew the answer was yes, because I have a social justice background, but I didn’t feel like searching for the articles that prove it. See how that works? Even the best of us will succumb to the pressures of contemporary times. But I digress.

Doing something quickly is tied to having a “sense of urgency,” which we seemed to have mastered here in the so-called western world. Everything has to be known, understood, and mastered right now. But that’s not how progress works. Meaningful work, whether related to social justice or not, takes time. Reading a book, processing information, and learning takes time.

I also find it paradoxical that we are in an era where some thought leaders are calling for women and those in diverse communities to slow down and rest to this type of system, while others are advocating for the use of AI to do quick work. The hope is that AI will become the work horses that companies once tried to make people into. The premise is that with the latter, human beings can offload menial tasks, leaving more time to be productive in other ways.

I’m not buying it.

I am an observer. I’ve seen what many do with free time. They scroll social media. They isolate because engaging with an app is more comfortable. They avoid conversations that will improve their lives. Many do not use their current time to think critically or to be more productive for their own wellbeing. I suspect many will not use their free time to make the world a better place, as proponents of AI want us to believe.

Instead, I foresee a world where AI is running varied facets of our lives that we’ve deemed to be just too hard, too stressful, and too time consuming. Today, Copilot is writing a harmless email. Tomorrow? Another AI will do something more high-stakes, like interact with your children. Cause who wants to do that? And when that happens, please do not blame the “tech bros.” Remember how you used it in its infancy because it was easy, cheap, and quick. Remember, whether conscious or not, we are always complicit in the unintended consequences of our past actions.

https://www.nsta.org/blog/think-or-not-think-impact-ai-critical-thinking-skills#:~:text=Despite%20the%20potential%20benefits%2C%20there,analytically%20and%20solve%20problems%20independently. ︎Lee, Hao-Ping, Advait Sarkar, Lev Tankelevitch, Ian Drosos, Sean Rintel, Richard Banks, and Nicholas Wilson. “The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects from a Survey of Knowledge Workers.” In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–22. 2025. ︎RELATED POSTS