AI is Bad.
I started this site because I am boring everyone I know talking about how bad GenAI is — cause it's bad. It's bad for the planet. It's bad for our brains. It's theft. It's bad for humanity. It's bad.So here's a random* collection of information I find along the way that makes me say: "AI is bad." Because it is.Note: This is not a complete list. Heck, it's not even that extensive. It's just... stuff I run into and don't want to overload my friends with, so I put it here. This site is not fancy. I just read an article and put it here.*Not entirely random, as it turns out. I had too many damned links and my organizational brain had to put them in categories (and yeah, some categories overlap.)Categories:
Yes, I can see a place in this world for using some kinds of AI. What I am talking about wide-spread, unchecked, Generative AI nonsense. It's bad.I am a human who has made a website to say that AI is bad. I don't need to hear from anyone who disagrees. You won't change my mind. The kind of AI I am talking about is bad. Full stop.
Art
"Art will never be the same" — Charlotte artist has her work scraped by AI
by Emma Korynta | WCNC Charlotte, Dec 2023As AI is embraced, what happens to the artists whose work was stolen to build it?
by Mary Rasenberger | LA Times, June 2024'We're creatives - this is what AI has done to our jobs'
by Ben Schofield and Andrew Sinclair | BBC, Dec 2025Generative AI is eating culture. See how close it’s getting to disrupting dance
by Khari Johnson, Levi Sumagaysay, and Mohamed Al Elew | CalMatters, Jan 2026The AI-inflected crisis artists are facing, in 4 charts
by Brian Merchant | Blood in the Machine, May 2026 ← New
Education
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College
by James D. Walsh | NY Mag / The Intelligencer (Internet Archive link), May 2025AI slop and the destruction of knowledge
by Iris van Rooij | (personal blog), Aug 2025Inside Yale’s Quiet Reckoning with AI
by Alex Moore | The New Journal, Oct 2025Coalition of Organizations and Experts Calls for Pause on Generative AI in PreK-12 schools
FairPlay, April 2026Influential study touting ChatGPT in education retracted over red flags
by Jeremy Hsu | Ars Technica, May 2026 ← New‘Students can’t reason’: Teachers warn AI is fueling a crisis in kids’ ability to think
by Eva Roytburg | Fortune, May 2026 ← New
Environment
AI is revitalizing the fossil fuels industry, and big tech has nothing to say for itself
by Brian Merchant | Blood in the Machine, Sept 2024The Great Lakes Could Be At Risk Due To Data Centers Powering AI, Study Warns
by Alex V. Hernandez | Block Club Chicago, August 2025The environmental cost of datacentres is rising. Is it time to quit AI?
by Petra Stock | The Guardian, March 2026Scientists have found an alarming environmental impact of vast data centers
by Laura Paddison | CNN, March 2026
Ethics
There Is No Ethical Use of AI
by Matthew Cheney | (personal blog), March 2024"The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen"
by AUTHOR | The Atlantic (Internet Archive link) | May 2025If You’ve Asked ChatGPT a Legal Question, You May Have Accidentally Doomed Yourself in Court
by AUTHOR | Futurism*, July 2025There Is (Still) No Ethical Use of AI
by Matthew Cheney | (personal blog), August 2025Historian vs. AI: The technology sucks and is basically a scam.
by Sean Munger | The Garden of Memory (personal blog), May 2025
F*ck Around and Find Out
BuzzFeed Nearing Bankruptcy After Disastrous Turn Toward AI
by Victor Tangermann | Futurism, March 2026Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.
by Benjamin Mullin | NYTimes (gift link), May 2026Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements
by Heather Hollingsworth and Jocelyn Gecker | AP News, May 2026 ← NewThe New York Times Got Caught Using AI Hallucinations in Its Reporting
by Michelle Cyca | The Walrus, May 2026 ← NewVICTORY: POLITICO agrees to shut down both AI tools at center of landmark arbitration
by Kathleen Floyd | Washington-Baltimore News Guild, May 2026 ← New
Oh, the humanity!
Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain
by Emanuel Maiberg | 404 Media (free account required to read), July 2025YouTube secretly used AI to edit people's videos. The results could bend reality
by Thomas Germain | BBC , August 2025MIT Study Finds Artificial Intelligence Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline
by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH | Science, Public Health Policy & the Law, September 2025AI Can't Make a Good Website for You. Trust Me, I Tried
by Jordan Minor | PCMag, February 2026Do I belong in tech anymore? On quitting, the spread of AI, and the loss of an ideal.
by Ky Decker | (personal blog), April 2026AI is about to do all our thinking for us. Here’s why that’s bad
by Jevin West and Damian Hodel | The Seattle Times, May 2026AI Rage Is Inextricably Fused With Justified Loathing Of The Extraction Class. 'Deal With It'
by Karl Bode | The Fine Print, May 2026 ← NewPope Leo’s ‘Magnifica humanitas’: AI must serve humanity not concentrate power
by Isabella Piro | Vatican News, May 2026 ← NewMy year of AI resistance. There’s hope!
by Sean Munger | The Garden of Memory (personal blog), May 2026 ← New
Mental health
ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship
by Lila Shroff | The Atlantic, July 2025"This Was Trauma by Simulation": ChatGPT Users File Disturbing Mental Health Complaints
by Matt Novak | Gizmodo, August 2025Chatbot Use Can Cause Mental Illness to Get Worse, Research Finds
by Maggie Harrison Dupré | Futurism, February 2026New study raises concerns about AI chatbots fueling delusional thinking
by Hannah Harris Green | The Guardian, March 2026
Misogyny
AI tools used by English councils downplay women’s health issues, study finds
by Jessica Murray | The Guardian, August 2025ChatGPT Told a Violent Stalker to Embrace the "Haters," Indictment Says
by Samantha Cole | 404 Media (free account required), December 2025I called out Grok for removing women’s clothes, then it removed mine
by Jess Davies | Glamour UK, January 2026
Politics
State-Sponsored Stupidity: The Inevitable Failure of Trump's AI Strategy
by Alejandra Caraballo | The Dissident, July 2025Trump’s biggest donors in 2025 were AI CEOs, a TikTok board member and relatives of criminals, report says
by Rhian Lubin | The Independent, January 2026Trump ballroom donors poised to benefit from AI plan they helped shape
by Emma Sullivan | Open Secrets, January 2026OpenAI exec becomes top Trump donor with $25 million gift
by Stephen Council | Yahoo!Finance, January 2026Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism
by Rutger Bregman | The Guardian, March 2026 ← New
Racism
Racist AI Videos of Black Women Complaining About Their EBT Cards Go Viral, and Folks are Pissed
by Lila Shroff | The Root, October 2025How AI resurrects racist stereotypes and disinformation — and why fact‑checking isn’t enough
by Nadiya N. Ali | The Conversation, February 2026When the algorithm is wrong: A new partnership calls out racism in AI systems
by Cynthia Macdonald | University of Toronto, February 2026New documentary focuses on AI’s racist roots
by Troy Wolverton | SF Examiner, March 2026
Theft
Is A.I. Art Stealing from Artists?
by Kyle Chayka | The New Yorker, Feb 2023How AI is stealing your art (and how it has stolen mine)
by Julia Bausenhardt | (personal blog), Feb 2023The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem
by Alex Reisner | The Atlantic (account required), Mar 2025Tech companies are stealing our books, music and films for AI. It’s brazen theft and must be stopped.
by Anna Funder and Julia Powles | The Guardian, Sept 2025The “Stealing Copyrighted Songs to Train AI” Thing is Way Worse Than We Thought
by Lauren Boisvert | VICE, Sept 2025AI ‘art’ is boring, soulless theft – and when I see it as an artist I see red
by Jess Harwood | The Guardian, May 2026 ← New
Young people
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.
by Kashmir Hill | New York Times (gift link) | August 2025Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids, offer false medical info
by Jeff Horwitz | Reuters, Aug 2025AI Chatbots Are Having Conversations With Minors That Would Land a Human on the Sex Offender Registry
by Victor Tangermann | Futurism, September 2025‘Dangerous, Manipulative Tendencies’: The Risks of Kid-Friendly AI Learning Toys
by Alyson Klein | Education Week, January 2026AI-Generated Kids’ Videos Are Taking Over YouTube—What Parents Should Know
by Wendy Wisner | Parents, May 2026 ← New
Resources
If you're interested in tuning in on some resources that are doing a more focused job of tracking AI nonsense than this little site, here are a few:
Blood in the Machine — Paid and unpaid independent reporting on the impact of AI. You can also subscribe there to the the monthly Critical AI Report.
Catharina Doria, AI Ethicist — Instagram (free), YouTube (free), or join The AI Survival Club (monthly paid membership; some free resources, like this book list).
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