As a writer, there’s almost nothing on this Earth that I despise more than generative artificial intelligence.
When I was in college, I watched the rise of ChatGPT and other OpenAI tools and witnessed how they took over my generation’s approach to work. Some of my peers didn’t just use AI occasionally; they heavily relied on it to get their work done on time. From asking chatbots to summarize articles to expecting AI to write entire theses, some students can’t seem to complete any of their coursework without AI assistance. Does this over-reliance on computer systems have detrimental effects on our minds?
Many already know that AI seriously damages the environment.
ChatGPT uses a significant amount of water to operate: 16 ounces of water for every 20 to 50 searches. And that only counts the water use it takes for the AI system to process the queries, not the amount of water the system requires to simply exist. One large AI center alone uses around 300,000 gallons of water per day, and last year, artificial intelligence was estimated to have used anywhere from around 312.5 to 764.6 billion liters of water. This doesn’t even account for the carbon dioxide production that AI generates, which could be between 32 and 79.7 million tons annually.
However, when we abuse artificial intelligence systems, we also damage our cognition.
Our dependence on these systems and our decision to offload tasks to AI diminishes our creativity and critical thinking skills. An MIT Media Lab study clearly demonstrates this decline.
Scientists studied the effects of using Large Language Models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, in the educational context of essay-writing. They broke participants into three groups based on how they were to write their essays: the “LLM” group, the “Search Engine” group, and the “Brain-Only” group. In a follow-up session, the scientists asked the “LLM” group to write without the use of an LLM. Researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to record participants’ brain activity, and their findings were concerning.
Results indicated “significantly different neural connectivity patterns,” where the “LLM” group demonstrated weak brain connectivity. This group also struggled to recall what they had written minutes prior. These weakened neural connections and signs of cognitive atrophy after AI use should alarm us all. Critical thinking skills aren’t just necessary in academic settings; we use them to make day-to-day life decisions.
Some people rely on chatbots to make a wide variety of choices for them, completely unaware of the mental decline that using these systems causes. Why should we destroy the environment just to ruin our minds as well? Human beings functioned perfectly before the introduction of generative AI, and while these tools are meant to help us, our over-reliance on them is making us less intelligent.
It’s not just our intelligence and the environment that’s at stake when we use AI.
OpenAI is one of President Trump’s biggest donors, giving $25 million to Trump in 2025. Additionally, OpenAI is currently openly collaborating with ICE. There’s never been a better time to boycott ChatGPT and to reevaluate our use of chatbots and generative artificial intelligence.
If you use chatbots to communicate with colleagues or to send your friends texts, imagine that the people on the other end of your conversations are using AI to respond to you as well. What does this mean for the future of human connection?
Let’s reassess our dependence on AI. I’ll never touch ChatGPT, and I hope that you’ll join me in boycotting AI systems.
