Half-Baked, Fully Shipped: The Tradeoffs I’m Making With AI (And Why I’m Nervous)

I’ve been thinking a lot about AI lately.

I think a lot. About a lot of things. Probably too much.
But lately, it’s been AI. Specifically: how much I love using LLM chatbots for various tasks.

And the thing is... I know they hallucinate. I know they’re biased by their training data. I know there are environmental concerns, ethical concerns, accessibility concerns... and those things matter to me. And I also still love using them.

Aside from what that says about me as a person (something I’ll probably bring up in therapy 🫠), I’ve been really thinking about this tension. Even though I know they’re sometimes flat-out wrong, I still reach for them. Often.

I’ve got my own systems in place to catch mistakes. I’m choosy about when I rely on AI, and I still trust my own thinking in the end. But I can feel how ingrained the habit is becoming. Almost like smartphones. It’s useful, and fast, and it's hard to imagine going without. (Almost. For me anyway).

And I imagine that as more people start using these tools they’ll find themselves in the same spot. And (assuming that happens), what does that say about us?

There’s already talk about the enshittification of the internet and software. And I keep wondering whether this is just a continuation of that.

If more of us keep leaning on tools that *confidently get things wrong (not rarely, but regularly). What happens when that becomes the baseline?

It feels different to me than using janky UI or a slow app. It’s so much more subtle. Less “ugh, this thing is broken” and more not realizing that your own thinking is drifting.

Now, I want to be really clear: I don’t think AI is bad, and I’m not going to say we shouldn’t use it (or the tools built with it). I think it’s a powerful tool. I’ll probably write a follow-up soon about how I use LLMs myself. But like most powerful things, it's use deserves care and guardrails.

So, I’m watching and wondering where we’re all being nudged. Softly, slowly, and for most probably without noticing. Because like most of y'all, I didn't really notice the moment my smartphone became essential, either.