{"id":87,"date":"2026-09-05T18:48:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bmccosar.com\/?p=87"},"modified":"2026-09-05T19:43:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T19:43:02","slug":"why-i-dont-use-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bmccosar.com\/?p=87","title":{"rendered":"Why I Don’t Use AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Also, why you shouldn’t either.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve come to the point in the 21st century where argument and debate are dead. When someone has a different view, apparently it’s best to ignore their points and keep on believing the same thing as before \u2026 all to fit in with the crowd you’ve identified yourself as belonging to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, this article is not about you<\/em>. Maybe you agree with me. Great! But if you disagree, well, nothing I say will convince you otherwise. We’ve lost the art of discourse. But that’s not the only art in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took me years to become an expert in chemistry, a long process of learning new principles and incorporating them into what I know. Nowadays? Ask an AI. But when the wrong answer comes your way\u2014how would you be able to tell?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you want the prestige of being an author or an artist. (You certainly can’t be in it for the money.) Up until AI\u2014just as with chemistry\u2014people had to learn the art themselves. Now? Have an AI do it. Unlike in science, there are no wrong answers, so what could go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LLMs don’t sprout out of the forehead of Zeus fully formed. Someone has to feed them while they grow up. Most often, that’s with someone else’s work. Something human<\/em> generated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, but there’s worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI Steals Your Birthright<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Storytelling and art are ancient pursuits (Van Pelt<\/a>, 2018), predating written language. Your ancestors had the ability to create worlds with word and image; people could experience these works directly, in their own minds, just by viewing or listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now? Literacy rates are falling (Kahloon<\/a>, 2025), and fewer people are reading for fun (Lee<\/a>, 2025). As a former educator, I can tell you a lot of that is the fault of the U.S. education system (but that’s another article entirely).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editors certainly notice this. Many are drowning in a sea of wanna-be’s and fake-be’s, their submission portals clogged with what people have begun to call “AI Slop.” (One of the most notable examples is when Clarkesworld<\/a><\/em> was forced to shut down submissions: Dixit<\/a>, 2023.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet there’s one more victim: just as in school, copying someone’s homework doesn’t make you smarter. It just makes you a bigger fake, and a weak one at that (Daniels<\/a>, 2026). Remember how I said education was already failing? AI seems to be making everyone who uses it dumber (Hogenboom<\/a>, 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So. Use AI to create crappy stories \u2192 someone just reads a misleading summary \u2192 who cares anymore<\/em>. Flipping through five second videos replaces everything it means to be human, in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t think you’ll like living in a world without empathy or connection, but what do I know. Maybe creating dystopias has gone from literary art to performance art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI Devalues Human Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When generative AI first came out, some people hailed it as the democratization of creativity. Well. By “some people”, I mean the tech barons who forced that idea out there (Merchant<\/a>, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For writers and artists nowadays? (The real ones, I mean. In this blog, I refer to the posers as “people who use LLMs to create text” or “people who use LLMs to create images.”) Generative AI is an existential threat. Why bother finding a cover artist for that brand new fake novel you just almost-wrote? Just mutter a few words into the Theft-O-Matic 2026 and off we go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation: there are real people<\/em> on the other end of this equation who have dedicated a substantial portion of their lives to attaining some form of expertise.* Replacing them with a third-rate magic wish box devalues the entire human experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Notice I didn’t say talent<\/em>. Becoming an expert merely requires work. A lot of it (Cherry<\/a>, 2022). That’s what’s being devalued here, in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is a Toxic Industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Oddly, this is the one thing that people seem to agree on. Few articles really outline the erosion of the human mind that generative AI causes, but with data centers whirring away in neighborhoods (Ya\u00f1ez-Barnuevo<\/a>, 2026), using up all the water and electricity (Berreby<\/a>, 2024), causing disruptions to the electrical grid nationwide (Wilder<\/a>, 2026)\u2014people have noticed! (NEA, 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is an Investment Bubble<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Way back, I used to be in the stock market. About 1999, when the web really took off, people started saying insane things. Some claimed this was the “new economy” and that “stock prices will only go up, forever!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, it was a bubble. The Dotcom Bubble, it’s called now (International Banker<\/a>, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, we’ve learned better since then. In fact\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, wait. This just coming in. Let’s see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whoops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ugly theme from the Dotcom Bubble resurfaced, a sort of circular Ponzi scheme\u2014more of a rubber band tying two things together than a pyramid. Company A invests in company B, company B builds data centers and of course buys chips from Company A (Charoenwong et. al.<\/a>, 2026). Hey, free markets? Where are the consumers in all of this? Where’s the demand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s no demand. It’s all being shoved down our throat. You’ve seen it. Everyone has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a teacher, I do like to give out the occasional bit of homework. Compare and contrast modern AI companies \/ modern chipmakers with “Flip that House” fraud (FBI<\/a>, 2019). Person A sells the house to person B, who they know. Using a fake appraisal, B gets a huge loan (let’s just call these “investors” here). B takes a cut and pays out A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank (“investors”) is left only with foreclosure proceedings to get its money back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank? Well, that’s the economy<\/em> in this hypothetical situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, but AI can save companies so much money\u2014by firing workers! Wait, no it can’t (Green<\/a>, 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, it’s just the same old crowd from the Dotcom years, patting themselves on the back for being brilliant, trying to corner the market on something nobody really should want. For investors, well, they’re not too big on actual math (Rogelberg<\/a>, 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What did I say at the beginning? You already knew my conclusion. People who disagreed just heard Charlie Brown’s teacher talking the entire time (“Waa-WAA-waaa”) if they read this far at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is my personal statement. I don’t use AI. I refuse to support the sort of fakes who use<\/em> AI. And I only have one regret:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read a lot of independent press. I rely on editors<\/em> to screen out the AI slop for me. I also don’t trust “AI detectors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means, as always, some poor human has to pay the price for the poor decisions of another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Readers in the year 2026 should be amazed that at one point, you could go to a website without being bombarded by ads. Information once flowed freely. Why did hosting web pages suddenly get so much more expensive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn’t. The secret answer there is “greed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At any rate, none of the following articles were paywalled at the time this post was written (5-Sept-2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berreby, David. \u201cAs Use of A.I. Soars, So Does the Energy and Water It Requires.\u201d Yale E360<\/em>, Yale School of the Environment, 6 Feb. 2024, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braga, Michael. \u201c\u2018Flip That House\u2019 Fraud COST Billions.\u201d Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 19 July 2009, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charoenwong, Ben et. al. \u201cAre We in an AI Bubble?\u201d INSEAD Knowledge, 23 Feb. 2026, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cherry, Kendra. \u201cHow Hard Is It to Become an Expert at Something?\u201d Verywell Mind<\/em>, 29 Mar. 2022, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniels, Lauren Elise. \u201cAn Editor on Generative AI: The Tool That Blunts the User.\u201d Ruad\u00e1n Books<\/em>, 31 Aug. 2026, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dixit, Pranav. \u201cA Sci-Fi Magazine Was Flooded By AI-Written Submissions.\u201d BuzzFeed News<\/em>, 23 Feb. 2023, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FBI = \u201cIllegal Property Flipping\u201d Federal Bureau of Investigation<\/em>, 2019, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green, Jemma. \u201cAI Costs More Than The People It Replaced.\u201d Forbes<\/em>, 2 July 2026, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hogenboom, Melissa. \u201cAI Chatbots Could Be Making You Stupider.\u201d Bbc.Com, BBC, 20 Apr. 2026, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Banker. \u201cThe Dotcom Bubble Burst (2000).\u201d International Banker<\/em>, 29 Sept. 2021, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026. [I hate when no author is given for articles. Seems a little like theft in and of itself. On the other hand, who ever thought that I’d be citing a publication called “International Banker”?]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahloon, Idrees. \u201cAmerica is Sliding Toward Illiteracy.\u201d The Atlantic<\/em>, 14 Oct. 2025, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee, Benjamin. \u201c\u2018Deeply Concerning\u2019: Reading for Fun in the US Has Fallen by 40%, New Study Says.\u201d The Guardian<\/em>, 20 Aug. 2025, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026. [Support the Guardian, by the way. They’re one of the last reliable sources of news in the world.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merchant, Brian. \u201cAI Is Not \u2018Democratizing Creativity.\u2019 It\u2019s Doing the Opposite.\u201d Blood in the Machine<\/em>, 2024, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEA = National Education Association. \u201cEnvironmental Impact of AI | NEA.\u201d Nea.Org<\/em>, 2025, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogelberg, Sasha. \u201cTop Economist Warns That the AI Math Doesn\u2019t Make Sense: \u2018Profits Are Currently Being Funded by Investors Rather than Earned from Customers.\u2019\u201d Fortune<\/em>, 10 Aug. 2026, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Pelt, Jennifer. \u201cThe History of Storytelling.\u201d Words Alive<\/em>, 5 Sept. 2018, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilder, Drew. \u201cHow Loudoun County Data Centers Are Linked to Power Flickering across Half the U.S..\u201d NBC4 Washington<\/em>, 24 July 2026, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ya\u00f1ez-Barnuevo, Miguel. \u201cCommunities Are Raising Noise Pollution Concerns About Data Centers.\u201d Eesi.Org<\/em>, 2026, direct link<\/a>. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, search engines, I realize you’re impacted by this sort of dumbing-down as well, but please, don’t show me Reddit. I’d rather cite the proceedings of the Salem Witch Trials or the nearest convenient Ouija board. I also won’t cite the Washington Post<\/em>, which used to be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s It! And Disclaimers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Take any point I made in this article. We exist in a Dirac Sea<\/a> of opinion. Someone, somewhere, will say the exact opposite. One difference, though: they’re wrong \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opinions expressed in my blog are my own, and although works were referenced here, they played no part in this article’s construction. Especially important is that I did my own research<\/em>. I didn’t rely on some Great Crap Machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t take tips or collect names for an email list. If you appreciate my work, try donating to one of the following charities or organizations. This short list was chosen for relevance to this particular article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n