Generative AI Sucks

 The following is a transcript of a speech delivered by Ruby Wilson, a classmate in my Public Speaking class. Used with permission.

Introduction:

A huge amount of people in the world have forgotten that, only a few years ago, we were all perfectly capable

of using our minds for things like reading books, telling stories, writing vows and eulogies, forming opinions,

doing our homework – and it should concern us all that powerful companies have convinced us that we cannot

accomplish these things that humanity has been doing from the beginning. Research studies are consistently

showing that generative AI is diminishing our humanity and burning through our planet’s resources – but

cutting it out of our lives is something we can all do to curb these effects. Today I will share with you just a few

of the main drawbacks of artificial intelligence, and offer some easy steps that we can all take to minimize our

interactions with it. I hope that by the end of this speech, you will be encouraged to limit AI use in your daily

lives, and feel empowered to do so.

Body:

I. Generative AI is harming our minds and our planet.

A. Studies are showing that consistent use of artificial intelligence is detrimental to our personal

health in three major areas: Critical thought, mental health, and social wellness.

1. Multiple studies have shown a link between AI use and weakened neural connections,

like this 2025 MIT research project – the red lines indicate areas of high brain activity,

while the blue ones show low activity. This data was collected while participants wrote

essays, some using AI and others using only their minds. You can see that the AI group is

mostly blue, while the brain only group has plenty of those red connections.

2. A different MIT study tracked peoples’ use of AI chatbots over time – they found that

long-term chatbot use leads to increases in feelings of loneliness and decreases in human

socialization, which ultimately culminated in participants experiencing problematic

emotional dependence on said chatbots.

3. As psychologist Dr. Saed Hill states: “AI isn’t designed to give you great life advice – it’s

designed to keep you on the platform.”

B. The AI boom is not only harming our minds, it is exacerbating our existing climate crisis.

1. Yale’s climate research team estimated that AI use generated around 80 million tons of

carbon emissions in 2025 – equivalent to the emissions of the entirety of New York City

that year; and its consumption of freshwater resources exceeded the amount of water used

in the global bottled water industry over the same period.

2. These numbers are only estimates, because there are no regulations that require these tech

companies to disclose their environmental impact. “We are on a path where the effects of

climate change won’t be fully known until it is too late to do anything about it,” says

climate researcher Jennifer Turliuk.

Transition:

So we’ve discussed some of the big drawbacks of widespread artificial intelligence use - from the way that it

negatively impacts our minds to the way that it is straining the environment and our natural resources. Many of

you may be thinking, ok, sure, AI sucks, but what can we do about it? It’s easy to say, “just get off of your

phone!”, but that’s much more difficult in practice – especially when technology is such a critical component in

navigating our current world, and AI has been rapidly thrust into the tools that many of us use daily.

II. What we can do is limit our interactions with AI as much as possible.

A. The obvious way to do this is to not use certain apps or websites.

1. Delete AI apps like ChatGPT or Replika.

2. When a website or app you use becomes saturated with AI, check the settings – there

are often ways to request that AI content be withheld or that AI features be turned off –

Gmail, Instagram, Pinterest, and Whatsapp are some commonly used apps that have

this ability.

3. Google’s often unreliable AI Overview is a feature that you cannot turn off – but what

you can do is change your search engine completely, which sounds like a big undertaking

but really only takes a few minutes! There are many options, but one good one is

DuckDuckGo, which allows you to turn off AI features, and as a bonus, it does not sell

your information or track your activity, unlike Google.

B. The ultimate way to remove ourselves from the addictive and detrimental AI spiral is to make

real life more appealing.

1. During a Harvard commencement speech last week, speaker Ronny Chieng gave some

sage advice on this topic: he said, “Make sure your offline world is better than your

online one”.

2. Putting the phone down and doing those things that humans have been doing for so many

generations – reading books, playing music, cooking meals, telling stories, and making

human connections – can ultimately bring us back to the natural world and enrich our

lives in ways that artificial intelligence never could.

Conclusion:

Today, we’ve discussed some of the major problems with artificial intelligence – from the ways in which it

harms our minds to the compounding effect that it has on the ongoing climate crisis. We then learned of some

simple steps that we all can take to remove unnecessary generative AI from our daily lives – which I urge

everybody to do as much as possible – to lighten the load on our planet’s already limited resources, and take

back control of our minds.