It seems like with every new tool that is brought to a company, the main purpose behind it is to cut costs. For any company, being profitable comes first. That's how they assure their survival. Making profit can either come by having more net income or by cutting down costs so that the liabilities go lower than the assets. AI promises these companies a future of automation and wage-free labor. Although AI is still new, we are seeing a lot of shifts in the current trends already. AI algorithms are being used to make decisions that would otherwise be made by a human analyst and although these systems are quite error-prone, they will be utilized if they promise profits.

At first, I was warming up to the idea of AI as a tool. But the more I see its implementations, the more I feel like it just makes things worse. Advertisements about any tech related product are now accompanied by the buzzwords "Artificial Intelligence" and "LLMs". There seems to be a disconnect between the companies selling these products and the general audience, or, more possibly, there is a disconnect between me and the people they are marketing to.

The people who appear to be most excited by the AI boom are what one would describe as "tech bros", whereas an average person I meet in real life is somewhat worried and ignorant about AI and its prospects. AI has already succeeded in making a part of my Instagram feed pretty dull and predictable. AI is also popularly being used to make adult content, sometimes without any sort of permission or consent from the person being edited or portrayed by the AI tools. Newer apps and services are trying to make it more and more easy for users to create AI generated images, audio and video and the results are quickly getting better to the point that you can barely tell a difference between an AI generated video and a real one. This ease of use coupled with lower costs makes this tool accessible to millions of users. Sexual violence has been a staple of dissent against women, especially the ones in positions of power, but the victims aren't always limited to powerful women. There are plenty of women suffering blackmail, slut-shaming, sexual violence, threats and encroachments by people in their known circle. The power of AI and deepfakes not only promises to make the situation worse but it has already done so in the case of the Indian journalist, Rana Ayyub and many female streamers and personalities online.

AI tools have also made it to streaming platforms like Spotify and AI generated songs have mixed themselves with the real non-generated art. The biggest problem with AI art, in my opinion, is that it just steals art from other artists who have put a lot of effort and intent into their work. These artists are not compensated for their work and the AI art itself lacks intent. Using AI for art is a different topic than "AI art". Using AI to enhance my own voice and then layer it on top of my original vocals in a track is an artistic choice. Typing a prompt that deliberately goes through a thousand art pieces and throws out a jumbled mess is an attempt at a cheap cash grab.

I do believe that there are some mundane jobs that humans just aren't supposed to do, like driving, and handing these tasks over to AI seems like a fair-enough move given that they follow rigorous safety standards. But, at the same time, just simply rapidly replacing humans with AI is not the correct way to do it. We need adequate social safety nets for people who are about to lose their jobs to these algorithms before we go ahead chopping everyone's living wages. The workers are being punished for contributing to an industry whose shareholders want to replace them with AI to make millions on top of their existing billions. The workers found an industry to help them earn a living and just followed the path to more promotions and small achievements to earn themselves a better life. There were no warning signs issued to them. They deserve protection from these algorithms and unjustified layoffs. Universal health care is a must for people who are about to be laid off jobs that provide them health insurance, and later on a universal basic income is required if honest, hard-working people are about to face mass-layoffs through no fault of their own, but only because they aren't profitable enough. If Universal Basic Income sounds too radical, I understand. At least guarantee these people a living-wage job before uprooting the industry and their livelihood. Investment in education to increase the future generation's skills, and investment in public transport to counterbalance a self-driving future is a necessary step towards a better tomorrow.

When ChatGPT was gaining hype, I was wary but optimistic about the use of AI. Now that I have seen its applications, it is clear that the most mass-produced tools are just there to make easy money. While there might be niches in which AI is being used to improve someone's life, the mass-produced versions seem to be solely focused on a quick buck for the people at the top, while bringing life-altering implications to the workers at the bottom, and to the general public when it is applied to industries like healthcare and used for automatic health insurance denials.[1][2]