AI Fatigue is real, and we are all living it

It is difficult, if not impossible to not be subjected to AI in one way or another all day, every day. It is exhausting.

Takeaways for your Clarity:

Read Time: 4-6 minutes

• AI is everywhere and everything in the technology landscape, so much so that it’s exhausting for your average carbon-based life form.
• The constant barrage of AI Enabled everything is leading to “AI Fatigue”. If you do not already feel it, you will.
• All of this is having a real impact on us, the human, and we have yet to fully realize what that means in the grand scheme of life.

AI is everywhere and everything

If you are anything like me, you probably hear something about artificial intelligence (AI) many times throughout your day. If you do not hear about it, you see it in every app or web site that you use. It is showing up in some of the most unassuming places almost to the point of novelty. The AI enabled everything is upon us and there is nothing that we can do to stop it.

As a technologist and cyber security practitioner, this is even more evident. Every article that I read, every time I open LinkedIn, every post and every conversation leads back to AI. Every single tool or technology that I put my hands on now has some flavor of AI baked into it. I did not ask for any of this, nor did I really want it. I also had no interest in paying for it, but I am (unwillingly) and this is where my issue begins.

I love technology. I love technological advancement. Hell, I love AI to some degree, but I am tired. I can not remember (because I do not think there is anything comparable) any technology causing this much of a disruption in the industry; in society. It is exciting and worrisome at the same time.

What I like more than technology is freedom of choice. That is what is being taken from us and as a result, leading to a real fatigue.

The Fatigue is Real

I think we have established and can all agree that AI is everywhere. It is becoming everything. While this is problematic on its own, there are other aspects to the uprising of AI that cause fatigue.

I do not know about you, but for my entire life, I do not remember a time where I could not trust my own eyes and ears as much as I can not today. Every article, every image, every song - everything could be a falsehood. This is problematic to the human condition. Sure, we have all heard the saying “Don’t trust everything you see/read on the Internet” at least once. Well, that mindset is in overdrive with the advent of AI.

This in my opinion is the root cause of “AI Fatigue”. It is pretty easy to ignore apps and websites touting that they have AI and it is better than the next guy’s. It is a whole other matter to have to evaluate and re-evaluate everything that you consume from an electronic source and decipher if it is fact or fiction. That is exhausting.

So, what is the impact?

There have been numerous studies done on the subject and this is an opinion piece, so I am going to give you my opinion on the matter as I see it. I have many more opinions, including that the use of AI by someone of my generation is far less likely to have an impact on my long term cognition or behavior.

For some background, I was born in 1980. The first half of my childhood (life) was spent without much in the way of technology. My foundational years were spent ’learning the hard way’. Technology came along, and I was fast to adapt and learn it - I even made it my career. With that said, technology did not help formulate who I am. More recent generations are not so lucky.

I feel like people that fall into this age group (35 - 45) are far less susceptible to the challenges that AI and Technology in general place on younger generations. People in my age group are more objective and suspicious of AI. I feel like we think differently, with more criticality.

Here are some catalysts:

• We name our AI: This may seem innocuous, but giving anything a name ‘humanizes’ it.
• We summon our AI: Hey [insert-ai-name], how do I tune up a carburetor?
• Instant Gratification: Immediate answers to complex questions on deep subjects.
• We over rely on AI: Many of us learn by doing, not by getting immediate answers.

How I perceive those catalysts:

• Befriending the machine: Who needs friends when you have [insert-ai-name] that always agrees with me and is available to chat any time. Taking the advice of AI over another human with real life experiences is sure to have consequences.
• Instant Expertise: With all of this knowledge immediately available and ‘someone’ to guide us through the work, we become ‘pseudointellectual’. There is no longer a need to learn and grow if AI is always on, always right and fast. Wisdom diminishes over time, having a generational and societal impact.
• Instant validation: It gives us a certain level of confidence knowing that rather than having the answer, we can get it immediately. This inflates our sense of knowledge, making us haughty; oozing with false confidence and nothing material to support it.
• Arrested development: I do not know many people that can pick up a new skill or master a complex subject solely by reading or sitting through lectures. Actively participating in the act of doing it is where learning mainly happens. A perfect example is ‘vibe coding’—becoming a developer without formal training or hands-on experience in writing code.

Final thoughts:

Civilization has come a long way. Historically, this has been slow and steady progress. Since the advent of the computer, that progress has accelerated year over year. This came with its own set of problems and benefits. If I am being honest, I really love technology as a hobby and job. I use AI (with great suspicion) and think it offers great benefit when used properly. I feel fortunate to have it in my life and more fortunate that I was not raised with it.

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