Jamil Zaki is professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, so he has some solid credentials (assuming he actually said this, and it isn’t an AI-generated meme).

I choose to believe it is legitimate since it came to me via Dr Laurie Santos (professor of psychology at Yale). She posted it recently with the note that “the struggle to put messy thoughts into clear sentences is often where the thinking actually happens. People who write about difficult emotional experiences even show fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression afterward.”

Think of writing as being a gym for human thought (not that I ever go to the gym, but I do write).

But maybe AI is actually an exercise machine for your brain? After all, it can be used to turbocharge your curiosity or your experimentation. Maybe the time you don’t spend writing a utilitarian email can be spent using your brain on something that’s more valuable. Or maybe you’ll just use that time scrolling social media or creating silly memes…

I think it’s pretty obvious which side of this debate I fall on. I have too many friends who are potentially losing out on jobs – everyone from writers to voice actors to computer engineers. The engineer, in particular, notes that her knowledge of system design and the software development lifecycle and software engineering best practices do not matter, which results in error-prone products and even more AI slop.

My engineer friend says that “AI in its current form is a technology which is specifically designed to hook into ultra-capitalistic tendencies. The drawcard is MAKE MORE STUFF, DO MORE STUFF, DELIVER MORE VALUE, GET MORE RICH, DREAM MORE, BE MORE, MORE MORE MORE.”

That leads me to my final thought, and that’s the environmental consequences. The data centres require vast amounts of land, electricity and water.

So thanks, but no thanks AI. I prefer to keep my brain active, write for myself, and then get outside for some exercise in the fresh air.