Previously in this blog I pointed out that AI is a tempting, seductive, snake that will make us stupid and steal our agency for the benefit of selfish billionaires. You can read that post here.
I am not a Luddite. I use computers constantly and even have a Master’s degree in Educational Technology. However, this means I can recognize the difference between a technology that has the potential to make people smarter and stronger and a technology that makes people dumber and weaker. I can also tell when a technology is being pushed at us rather than being voluntarily selected by us because of it’s usefulness, quality, and safety.
As I pointed out in my previous post, the billionaires have invested heavily in AI, and have yet to make a profit. They are desperate for all of us to “buy in” to this technology. At the same time, they continue to throw away big money building more and more environmentally disasterous “data centers – often over the objection of the people who live nearby. (See Box Elder County, Utah).
Drawing the line
I believe everyone should do everything they can to NOT use AI for anything. This is difficult, of course, because some type of machine “intelligence” is now built into nearly every machine. Even a simple thermostat is a very basic form of machine intelligence.
So I feel obligated to tell you where I personally draw the line. The original Google search engine can be considered an early form of AI. It combined internet data scraping with algorithms that sent answers to its users. I still use Google search. (Though it is now slower and less accurate. This is a result of business decisions Google has made, starting in 2019, to keep you on the site longer – to show you more ads, of course. See Doctorow, pp. 75-77 and Zitron below).
Once the fear of competition had been eliminated, making Google Search worse was a small price to pay for rising stock prices and massive buybacks.
Cory Doctorow
The original search engines gave you links to other websites that could usually provide you with the information you were seeking. Google Search served as a useful index to the ever growing internet.
Now, AI engines waste 10 times more energy to write out “the answer” for you – an answer that the AI stole from those other web sites. Sure, it is quick and easy, but there is no guarantee of accuracy – though the results are always presented as if they are definitive.
AI does not require its users to think critically and selectively about the results it presents, whereas a search engine requires the user to make critical choices among the suggested list of sites it returns. An AI user rarely takes the time needed to critically evaluate the CRAAP it returns. (CRAAP is a research acronym that stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose).
Phony personality
AI is not optimized to return facts. It is optimized to “please” the user.
Think about the disturbing personas that AI models present to the user. They become especially nauseating if you let an AI “talk” to you audibly. They are relentlessly, obnoxiously, “cheerful” and “helpful” – even when, perhaps especially when, they are feeding you inaccurate slop.
It is this aspect of AI that can trap people into asking AI for personal advice. In the process they unwittingly reveal personal information, sometimes VERY personal information, to the souless billionaire owners of the AI.
People need to remember that no information you provide to a machine on the internet is EVER confidential!
AI is not your friend. It is a simulated construct designed to seem “human” and “friendly”. AI is, at its center, a highly efficient plagiarism machine. It steals writing, art, and music and repackages it as it’s own “creation.” It does not give credit to the original, human, creators it steals from. Even worse, AI is literally stealing the jobs of those whose work it has already stolen.
Turning it off
I intended in this post to provide instructions to my readers on how to turn off those intrusive “AI helps” that keep popping up on our computers. I have found that I am unable to do that in a clean, simple form because the “helpful” AI crap on our computers is a moving target. I use Windows and Microsoft Office products and have found that, with each update, things you delete or turn off have a habit of reappearing.
In addition to my computer’s operating system, AI has also taken over most of the online products and services I regularly use: Google Search, Bing, Adobe Acrobat, Amazon, Canva, Dropbox, etc.
The other day, I followed some online directions to shut down AI in Windows 11 Pro. It involved some command line typing (which is beyond the experience of the average Windows user). When I was finished, the result was zero change in the AI behavior of any of my Windows apps.
I did find some online help that, for now, has allowed me to turn off the AI in Microsoft Word and Excel. [In each program go to File/Options/Copilot and uncheck “Enable Copilot”]. I do not know how long this “fix” will last, but it is nice being able to write in Word again without AI constantly nagging me.
If you do a bit of searching, you may find ways to turn off the AI features in the products you use. I strongly encourage you to do this. I intend to keep looking for more ways to turn off AI.
Resist
I encourage my readers to do everything they can to resist the AI snake. Delete it, turn it off, ignore it, unsubscribe from it, never use it. The billionaires (who mistakenly believe they can control the ravenous reptile they have unleashed) are counting on us to give up our critical thinking abilities, our personal information, our electricity, our water, and our jobs – voluntarily and passively.
I believe it is especially important to keep AI away from kids. The harm it does to the developing brain is documented. Question and challenge the use of AI in your neighborhood schools – especially elementary schools – and keep your own children away from it!
Sources:
Cory Doctorow, “Enshittification: Why Everything Got Worse and What to Do About It ,” Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2025.
Ed Zitron, “The Man Who Killed Google Search,” Where’s Your Ed At,” April 23, 2024.
Sarah Matysiak, “Does Using AI Affect Your Brain Performance?, Healthline, October 27, 2025.
Andrew R. Chow, “ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study,” TIME, November 13, 2025.