The Downsides of AI
In 2026, AI is relied on by many people of all ages and backgrounds to answer questions, assist with work, and even provide comfort. I know many of my peers, when presented with an assignment they don’t want to do, default to asking ChatGPT to do their assignment for them. It’s not just anecdotal, though- according to a poll done by the Pew Research Center last September, 62% of adults in the United States interact with AI at least several times a week (Kennedy). It is important to note that this is just interactions, not necessarily interactions specifically sought out. On the outside, AI may look like a helpful modern tool. In some ways, it is. However, there are many downsides I would like to inform you all about.
One of the downsides of AI is its potential bias. According to Dylan Losey, an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at The Virginia Tech College of Engineering, “AI is a powerful tool that can easily be misused. In general, AI and learning algorithms extrapolate from the data they are given. If the designers do not provide representative data, the resulting AI systems become biased and unfair.” (Gonsalves) This means that AI systems can take on human discrimination and refuse to treat different subjects the same based on things such as race and gender. Of course, this is something that could be improved with time and updates, but as it is this is a problem.
Another problem, perhaps one of the most widely talked about, is its negative environmental impact. AI centers demand a lot of both electricity and water. A lot of water is needed to cool the AI’s hardware, which can harm the local community and ecosystems (Zewe). The power needed to train AI needs a lot of electricity, which causes increased carbon dioxide waste and pressure on the electric grid (Zewe). This increased damage is extremely harmful on an already-dying planet. 2024 and 2025 have been the hottest years ever recorded, even warmer than years like 1998, during which the world experienced the strongest El Niño event on record (Nuccitelli). I would like to pose a question for you. If the climate dies, what do we do? Do we accept our fate and die? Do we pray for the rapture? Do we try to run off to a planet we aren’t built for? I don’t know about you, but none of these options are acceptable for me. We have to fight now to keep this from happening to us and the next generations. Even if you do not believe our scientists and think that climate change is fake, do you really want to risk it?
Not only is AI harming our environment, it seems to be harming us, as well. Some have suggested that over dependence on AI can erode critical thinking skills. Duke Center for Teaching Learning says that “researchers have found that university students who use Large Language Models (LLMs) to complete writing and research tasks experienced reduced cognitive load but demonstrated poorer reasoning and argumentation skills compared to those students using traditional search methods.”(“Does AI Harm Critical Thinking?”) In the modern world, with fake and exaggerated information being thrown at us every day, critical thinking skills are more important than ever. The less critical thinking skills you practice, the easier it is for you to get tricked and manipulated. I don’t want to fear monger. If you have asked ChatGPT for help on your homework, you aren’t magically stupid. Admittedly, I have in the past. However, I do want to encourage all of you to question things. Questioning things is how we keep those in power in check. Questioning things is how we don’t fall for fake news as easily. It is understandable to want to turn your brain off sometimes- life can be a lot. I offer this solution- turn your brain off. Scroll on TikTok for ten minutes and enjoy the tuff Batman edits and stupid jokes. But remember these things after. Listen to your instincts. If something seems off to you, there is probably a reason for that. If something seems not true or a joke seems a little weird, it very well could be innocent, but it could also not be innocent, and I think it’s important to keep that in mind.
Is AI minimizing human connection? It very well might be. If you happen to lurk on Reddit (or watch Smosh lurk on Reddit from the safety of Youtube), you’ve probably heard tales of people in relationships with AI chatbots. Whether they’re talking to their favorite character on Character AI or with a perfect specimen of their own creation, there are people out there who have chosen the company of artificial intelligence over real people. A study shows that 28% of American adults claim to have at least one intimate relationship with AI (Salas). I understand most of these relationships were born out of loneliness, and I do have sympathy for that. The thing about AI is that since it is artificial, it can be whatever you want. If you want it to, it will encourage your worst habits and help you spiral, unlike most human relationships that will, at some point, step in or step away. Of course there are negative human influences, but every human has limits. AI does not have these limits.
For most of this discussion, I haven’t really discussed AI images. I would like to talk about them now. AI images are potentially one of the most damaging AI devices. Put delicately, some people are using AI image generators to produce inappropriate, sexualized images of people who did not consent to this happening- celebrities, influencers, random people, and, most heinously, children (Walsh). I believe this would disgust any rational person, as it should. I think, at the very least, there should be much stricter bars put on these generators by the owners. Some may say that since these images aren’t real, they aren’t causing real harm. However, this is not true. Psychology Today found that the non-consensual distribution of intimate or sexual material can have significant psychological and emotional consequences (Walsh). I know personally, if this happened to me or someone I cared about, it would be an aggressive violation.
Continuing with our discussion of AI images, our next topic is AI art. To talk about AI art, I think it’s first important to talk about human art. Art has been part of culture since we lived in caves. It is still a very important part of our culture. Nothing can move me quite like art, whether it be a song, or a movie, or a painting; whether it’s an art school student on TikTok or the classic work of Norman Rockwell. It is a normal human urge to create; this is what leads to our childhood scribbles that were proudly displayed on the fridge and our iMovie trailers made at sleepovers. The hardest thing about creating is that nobody is naturally good. Leonardo de Vinci didn’t leave the womb clutching a paint brush. Oscar Wilde wasn’t writing classic novels as soon he could hold a quill. Of course, some have more of a natural inclination towards their art, but most skill in art is born out of practice. Some don’t want to put in this effort. I understand this; I too would like to create images of my characters without having to spend hours practicing smudging different body parts onto a page. However, in my opinion, the best art is born out of passion, something AI cannot have. AI can only steal things created out of human passion. AI models are fed art from all over and trained to imitate it. Matt Corrall, a designer, says “To call AI-generated images equivalent to real art, is - in my opinion - to entirely miss the point. The effortless, instantaneous nature of AI generation prevents it from having real meaning. It’s disposable. AI companies truly misunderstand art in thinking that the image is what matters, rather than the intent and the labour.” (Corrall). I completely agree. An AI image generator can create a picture of a tree, but it has never seen one. It has never climbed one, or scraped its knee on one. It has never cried beneath one, or eaten lunch with its best friend beneath one. It cannot understand the beauty of a tree, only what beauty has been portrayed by others.
Another worry with AI is that it will take people’s jobs. Even now, before AI has truly progressed into a truly sufficient tool, some organizations claim to have laid off people in anticipation of the future of AI. A study by the Harvard Business Review found that 39% of organizations interviewed made low to moderate headcount reductions for future AI tech (Davenport). However, it is speculated in this same article that there are other reasons for these lay-offs- such as budget cuts- but the organizations believe that citing AI as the reason is “sexier” (Davenport).
AI can be a useful tool, but it is overflowing with cons. It damages our brains and our connections. It hurts the one planet we have. I already didn’t like AI, but the more articles I read, the more information I absorbed, the more I grew to hate AI. I didn’t write this article to make fun of or insult AI users. I just want to make my peers and authority figures more aware of the tools they’re using and the impact they have. I hope you came out of this article having learned something. I hope you go on to do your own research. I have linked every article cited and I hope you read them for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
Works Cited
Gonsalves, Florence et. al “AI—The Good, the Bad, and the Scary.” Engineering | Virginia Tech, eng.vt.edu/magazine/stories/fall-2023/ai.html.
Corrall, Matt “The harm and hypocrisy of AI art”, Corrall Design, https://www.corralldesign.com/writing/ai-harm-hypocrisy
Davenport, Thomas H., Srinivasan, Laks “Companies Are Laying Off Workers Because of AI’s Potential—Not Its Performance” Harvard Business Review, [29 Jan. 2026] 2 Feb. 2026, https://hbr.org/2026/01/companies-are-laying-off-workers-because-of-ais-potential-not-its-performance
“Does AI Harm Critical Thinking?” Duke Center for Teaching and Learning, https://ctl.duke.edu/ai-ethics-learning-toolkit/does-ai-harm-critical-thinking/
Kennedy, Brain et. al, “How Americans View AI and Its Impact on People and Society
” Pew Research Center, 17 Sept. 2025, www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/ai-in-americans-lives-awareness-experiences-and-attitudes.
Nuccitelli, Dana, “Where things stand on climate change in 2026” Yale Climate Connections, 9 Jan. 2026, https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/01/where-things-stand-on-climate-change-in-2026/
Salas, Michael “Artificial Romance: A Study of AI and Human Relationships” Vantage Point Dallas Counseling, 22 Sept. 2025, https://vantagepointdallascounseling.com/couples-counseling/artificial-romance-a-study-of-ai-and-human-relationships/
Walsh, Erin & David, “AI-Images, Real World Harms” Psychology Today, 19 Jan. 2026, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/smart-parenting-smarter-kids/202601/ai-images-real-world-harms
Zewe, Adam “Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact” MIT News, 17 Jan. 2025, https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
